e we have
seen it move; and if it be a bird as large as a goose, will you explain
to me how it got in, and how it means to get out? There must be a
larger entrance on the other side of the tree."

"No, sahib," confidently asserted Ossaroo; "that you see before your
eye--that the only way to de horneebill nest."

"Hurrah for you, Ossy! So you mean to say that a bird as large as a
goose can go in and out by that hole? Why, a sparrow could scarcely
squeeze itself through there!"

"Horneebill he no goee in, he no goee out. He stay inside till him
little chickees ready for leavee nest."

"Come, Ossy!" said Caspar, in a bantering way; "that story is too good
to be true. You don't expect us to believe all that? What, stay in the
nest till the young are ready to leave it! And how then? How will the
young ones help their mother out of the scrape? How will they get out
themselves: for I suppose they don't leave the nest till they are pretty
well grown? Come! good shikaree; let us have no more circumlocution
about the matter, but explain all these apparently inexplicable
circumstances."

The shikaree, thus appealed to, proceeded to give the explanation
demanded.

The hornbill, he said, when about to bring forth its young, selects a
hollow in some tree, just large enough conveniently to hold the nest
which it builds, and also its own body. As soon as the nest is
constructed and the eggs all laid, the female bird takes her seat upon
them, and there remains; not only until the eggs are hatched, but for a
long time afterwards--in fact, until the young are nearly fledged and
able to take care of themselves. In order that she may be protected
during the period of her incubation against weasels, polecats,
ichneumons, and all such vermin, a design exhibiting either wonderful
instinct or sagacity, is carried into execution by the male. As soon as
his mate has squatted upon her eggs, he goes to work at the masonic art;
and using his great horned mandibles, first as a hod, and afterwards as
a trowel, he walls up the entrance to the nest--leaving an aperture just
large enough to be filled up by the beak of the female. The material
employed by him for this purpose is a kind of agglutinated mud, which he
procures from the neighbouring watercourse or quagmire, and somewhat
similar to that used by the common house-swallow for constructing _its_
peculiar nest. When dried, this mud becomes exceedingly hard--bidding
defiance t