HORNBILLS. 
65 
to Moulinein from Mooleyit, when halting at Kyik, I heard by the merest chance 
from the Karen villagers that a large hornbill was sitting on its nest in a tree 
close to the village, and that for several years past the same pair of birds had 
resorted to that spot for breeding. I accordingly lost no time in going to the place 
the next morning, and was shown a hole high up in the trunk of a moderately 
large straight tree, branchless for about fifty feet from the ground, in which I was 
TWO-HORNED HORNBILL. 
told the female lay concealed. The hole was covered with a thick layer of mud, 
all but a small space, through which she could thrust the end of her bill, and so 
receive food from the male. One of the villagers at length ascended with great 
labour by means of bamboo-pegs driven into the trunk, and commenced digging 
out the clay from the hole. While so employed, the female kept uttering her 
rattling sonorous cries, and the male remained perched on a neighbouring tree, 
sometimes flying to and fro, and coming close to us. Of him the natives appeared 
to entertain great dread, saying that he was sure to assault them; and it was with 
VOL. iv .—5 
