n the indicated spot. Karl was as much mystified by the strange
appearance as had been Caspar himself.

Not so Ossaroo. The moment he saw the carving ivory and the
dark-coloured disc, he pronounced, in a tone of careless indifference,
the simple phrase,--

"_Hornbill_--_de bird on him nest_."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

A CURIOUS NEST.

Just then the curved projection was observed to recede within the tree;
and in its place appeared a small dark hole, apparently the entrance to
a larger cavity. Karl, as Caspar had done the moment before, saw this
with surprise.

"Nest?" repeated Caspar, astonished at the shikaree's statement. "A
bird's nest? Is that what you mean, Ossy?"

"That just it, sahib. Nest of great biggee bird. Feringhees him call
_horneebill_."

"Well," rejoined Caspar, not greatly enlightened by Ossaroo's
explanation, "that's very curious. We have seen something like a horn
sticking out of the tree, though it looks more like ivory than horn. It
may be the bill of a bird; but as to a bird itself, or the nest of one,
where is that, pray?"

Ossaroo intimated that the nest was inside the tree; and that the bird
was on the nest just behind its beak, where it ought to be.

"What! the bird is in that hole where we saw the white thing sticking
out? Why, it quite filled the hole, and if there's a bird there, and
what we saw be its bill, I have only to say that its bill must be as big
as its body--else how can it get out and in through so small an
aperture? Certainly I see no hole but the one. Oh! perhaps the bird is
a _toucan_. I have heard there are some of that sort that can go
through any place where they can pass their beaks. Is it a toucan,
Ossaroo?"

Ossaroo could not tell what a toucan was, never having heard of such a
bird. His ornithological knowledge went no further than to the birds of
Bengal; and the toucan is found only in America. He stated that the
bird in the tree was called by the Feringhees a "hornbill," but it was
also known to some as the "rhinoceros bird." Ossaroo added that it was
as large as a goose; and that its body was many times thicker than its
bill, thick as the latter appeared to be.

"And you say it has its nest inside that hole?" interrogated Caspar,
pointing to the little round aperture, which did not appear to be over
three inches in diameter.

"Sure of it, young sahib," was Ossaroo's reply.

"Well, certainly there is some living creature in there, sinc