2 
Tlic Pied HornbiU. 
" itself through the riir. P.iit tlie efforts put forth arc too strenuous to be 
" maintained for many seconds at a time . When it lias managed to acqu'rc 
" a little impetus, the great bird gives its jiinions a rest, and sails at a 
" snail's pace for a few seconds, after which, in t)rder to save itself from 
" falling-, it violently flaps its wings ag.iin. .and thus manages to win its 
" way lalioriously from ""^ grove to another, in much the same way as the 
" primitive Hying reptiles must have clone. Nor is the excitement over when 
'■ it reaches its destination. Owing to the weight of the beak, the 
" HornbiU is in the danger of toppling over, head foremost, as it alights 
■' on a branch, and assuredly would sometimes do so, Imt for the lon.g 
" tail which serves to balance the great beak. So vigorously does th ■ 
" HornbiU have to flap its wings during flight that the sound of the air 
" rushing through them can be heard for nearly half a mile in the case 
" of the larger .species." 
" The majority of species of Hornbills shun the vicinity of human 
■■ beings. They are accordingly to be found only in the Terai and other 
" great forest tracts. The Grey HornbiU, on the contrary, shows no fear 
" of man. Although strictly arboreal in its habits, it occurs in those part;; 
" of the country that are not thickly wooded. A grove of trees is all that 
" it demands. Cirey Hornbills are birds of the highway and the village. 
" Usually they go aliout in small flocks." 
" Hornl)ills feed largely on fruit .... Their great bills are 
" admirably suited to the plucking of fruit. When the HornbiU has 
■ severed a berry, it tosses it into the air, catches it in its bill as it falls and 
" then swallows it." 
" The nesting h;ibits of Hornbills .are very lem.arkable. The eggs 
" arc deposited in a cavity in a tree. The cavity selected may be the 
" result of decay in the wood, or it may have been hollowed out by a wood- 
" pecker or other bird. In either case the HornbiU has usuall}' to enlarge 
'' the cavity, for, being a big bird, it requires a spacious nest. When all 
" [)reparations have been made, the female enters the nest hole, and does 
" not emerge again until some weeks later, when the eggs have been 
" hatched and the young are read)' to fly. Having entered the nest th? 
" hen HornbiU proceeds to reduce the size of the orifice 1)\ which .she 
" gained access to the nest cavity, by pl.istering it up with her ordure unt I 
" the aperture is no more tlian a mere slit, only just large enough to enabi ' 
" her to insert her bill through it. Thus, during the whole period of 
" incubation and brooding she is entirely dependent on the cock for food 
" And he never leaves her in the lurch .... When he reaches the 
" trunk in which his wife is sitting, he. while clinging to the b.irk with his 
" claws, taps the trunk with his bill, .-ind thus ajiprises her of his ;irriv;il. 
•' .She then thrusts her bill through the orihce and receives the food. 
" When at length the young are ready to leave the nest, the mother emerges 
" with her plumage in a much bedraggled condition. Why the hen 
■■ Ilornbill behaves thus, why she is content to submit periodically to a term 
