WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
makes a nest of her own featliers, lays her eggs, hatches them, 
and remains with the young till they are fully fledged. During 
all this time, which is stated to be two or three months, the 
male continues to feed her and the young family. The prisoner 
generally becomes quite fat, and is esteemed a very dainty 
morsel by the natives, while the poor slave of a husband gets 
so lean that on the sudden lowering of tlie temperature, which 
sometimes happens after a fall of rain, he is benumbed, falls 
down, and dies.’ 
“It will be seen by this statement that the male dies from 
exhaustion, doubtless produced by the constant and continual 
reproducing, not only of the actual food taken by the male, but 
of the supply of nutritive secretion in which the same is 
enveloped. 
“Witliout, however, allowing this strange statement and 
supposed discovery to remain simply, as many may think, an 
unlikely story, let us consider whether there are any other 
known facts bearing upon the point that will assist us in 
arriving at a fair decision upon this extremely interesting 
subject. 
“That parrots, pigeons, and many other birds reproduce their 
partially digested food during the pairing and breeding season 
for tlie support of the female and young is well known. The 
tame male hornbill is particularly distinguished at all seasons 
by this habit of throwing up its food, which he not only offers 
to the female, but to the keepers and others who are known to 
him. The male concave hornbill {Buceros cavatus), now in the 
Gardens, will frequently throw up grapes, and, holding them in 
the jDoint of the bill, thrust them into the mouth of the keeper, 
if he is not on the alert to prevent or avoid this distinguished 
mark of his kindness. 
“We have now to consider the facts brought forward. In 
no class of animals do we find so many instances of the 
frequent and easy mode of casting up or reproducing the food, 
or the indigestible substances taken with the food, as in birds. 
But there is more than this to be noticed, for instance, in 
the esculent swallows. We know the so-called edible swallow’s 
nest consists of a gelatinous secretion from the glands of a 
kind of swift ; and doubtless a portion only is used to form 
the nest ; the secretion is, in all j)robability, continued to 
feed the female and young, probably mixed with the insects 
captured during flight. There is also a similar secretion from 
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