238 
Birds of Celebes: Bucerotidae. 
diblc of R. GOOciTtttus. A. broad band of rufons occupiGs nioiG or loss of the 
middle of the tail in P enelopides in Phahdotorrhinus it is uniform black. 
Very little has been recorded of the habits of this species. Meyer (c 9) 
observed: “These birds live in pairs together. Their flight is heavy and slow. 
They feed on fruits, such as the waringuin (Urostigma) \ and large flocks are often 
to be seen together on high fruit-trees. A common bird, not restricted to the 
north-eastern parts of Celebes. [A MS. note says they were rare until May 
and then became very plentiful.] I also found it in Paguatt, in the Gulf* of 
Tomini, in September”. The cousins Sarasin got it at Mapane, N. Central Celebes, 
and the native hunters working for the Dresden Museum killed a specimen with 
strongly developed ridges and furrows at the base of the lower mandible in East 
Celebes; Wallace and Platen obtained it also in the Southern Peninsula, but 
it was not sent by Beccari from S. E. Celebes nor by Meyer from the Togian 
Islands. No Hornbill has been recorded from the Sangi Islands. Observations 
on the wanderings of the species in the island are altogether wanting; such is 
also the case as regards their breeding habits. As Mr. Oates remarks (B. Brit. 
Burmah II, 91) the breeding female of all species of Bucerotidae as far as is 
known is walled in by the male with mud, etc., a narrow opening only being 
left, through which the male provides his mate with food. A. D. Bartlett 
made the surprising discovery on a species in 1869 (P. Z. S. 142; Flower, 
ib. 150; Murie, ib. 1874, 420 — 425) that the bird (B. has the habit 
of ejecting a sack like a fig, formed of the epithelial lining of its stomach, filled 
with undigested fruit. The power of throwing up this sack was supposed by Mr. 
Bartlett to be possessed only during the breeding season by the male, which 
thus transfers at a lump the whole contents of his stomach to his imprisoned 
female; but actual observations in confirmation of this interesting view appear 
to be still entirely wanting (cf. Newton, D. B. 437). Mr. Whitehead says 
the food is brought by six or seven other birds (Expl. Kini Balu, 50). 
Bingham gives (Str. F. VIII, 459 sq.) interesting observations as to the 
plastering-up of the female in the nesting cavity by the male before she has 
begun to lay. The object of this curious process is regarded as a protective 
one, though it is not exactly known against what foes; the natives of Ceylon 
attribute it to the bird’s fear of monkeys (Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. As. 
Soc. 589; Legge, B. Ceylon 274), as does also Mr. Whitehead in Borneo 
(Expl. Kini Balu, 1893, 50). In New Guinea and elsewhere, where monkeys 
are absent, the male also walls in the female. Bernstein (J. f. O. 1861, 116, 
117) ascertained from personal observation that the female of Phytidoceros pli- 
catus^ the only species found east of Celebes, is similarly plastered up by the 
male, and is of opinion that Pteromys and the larger species of Sciurus are more 
dangerous foes to it than monkeys could be. After sitting for a time, the female 
loses nearly all her quills and tail-feathers and becomes incapable of flight, and 
Mr. Gammie remarks on Aceros nepalensis (Hodgs.) in Sikkim that she “is 
