After Crossing A
Stream And A Bog, We Found A Large Tree Leaning Over Some Water,
And On Its Lower
Side, at a height of about twenty feet, appeared
a small hole, and what looked like a quantity of mud,
Which I was
assured had been used in stopping up the large hole. After a
while we heard the harsh cry of a bird inside, and could see the
white extremity of its beak put out. I offered a rupee to anyone
who would go up and get the bird out, with the egg or young one;
but they all declared it was too difficult, and they were afraid
to try. I therefore very reluctantly came away. About an hour
afterwards, much to my surprise, a tremendous loud, hoarse
screaming was heard, and the bird was brought me, together with a
young one which had been found in the hole. This was a most
curious object, as large as a pigeon, but without a particle of
plumage on any part of it. It was exceedingly plump and soft, and
with a semi-transparent skin, so that it looked more like a bag
of jelly, with head and feet stuck on, than like a real bird.
The extraordinary habit of the male, in plastering up the female
with her egg, and feeding her during the whole time of
incubation, and until the young one is fledged, is common to
several of the large hornbills, and is one of those strange facts
in natural history which are "stranger than fiction."
CHAPTER IX.
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