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Show 144 MR. A. D. BARTLETT ON THE [Feb. 25, compels him to bring all her viands unbroken, for if a fig or any fruit be injured she will not touch it." This remarkable passage at once arrested m y attention ; for doubtless it is the result of careful observation. The point to be noticed is the fig-like appearance of the pellet of food that the male bird offers to the female, as it would be impossible at the distance the observer must be from the birds that he could distinguish the little yellow-skinned bag from a fig or other fruit of about that size. Mr. Wallace says the entrance of the nest is stopped up with mud and gummy substances. Referring to Dr. Livingstone, I find that on page 613, ' Missionary Travels in South Africa,' he says :-"The first time I saw this bird was at Kolobeng, where I had gone to the forest for some timber. Standing by a tree, a native looked behind me and exclaimed, ' There is the nest of a Korwe.' I saw a slit only, about half an inch wide and three or four inches long, in a slight hollow of the tree. Thinking the word Korwe denoted some small animal, I waited with interest to see what he would extract; he broke the clay which surrounded the slit, put his arm into the hole and brought out a Tockus, or Red-beaked Hornbill, which he killed. He informed me that when the female enters her nest she submits to a real confinement. The male plasters up the entrance, leaving only a narrow slit by which to feed his mate, and which exactly suits the form of his beak. The female makes a nest of her own feathers, 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 the 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*. Without, 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 conclusion upon this extremely interesting subject. That Parrots, Pigeons, and many other birds reproduce their partially digested food during the pairing and breeding-season for the 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 Rev. T. Phillips, in his MS. notes (see Moore's Catalogue of Birds in East-India House), speaking of the common Grey Indian Hornbills, says:-"A specimen killed at Hasanpur, on the Ganges, had in its belly when opened a bard lump about the size of a Pigeon's egg, which on being cut open was found filled with the fruit of the Peepul and other trees." |
