time that 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. I never had
an opportunity of ascertaining the actual length of the confinement, but
on passing the same tree at Kolobeng about eight days afterward the hole
was plastered up again, as if, in the short time that had elapsed, the
disconsolate husband had secured another wife. We did not disturb her,
and my duties prevented me from returning to the spot. This is the month
in which the female enters the nest. We had seen one of these, as
before mentioned, with the plastering not quite finished; we saw many
completed; and we received the very same account here that we did at
Kolobeng, that the bird comes forth when the young are fully fledged, at
the period when the corn is ripe; indeed, her appearance abroad with her
young is one of the signs they have for knowing when it ought to be so.
As that is about the end of April, the time is between two and three
months. She is said sometimes to hatch two eggs, and, when the young of
these are full-fledged, other two are just out of the egg-shells: she
then leaves the nest with the two elder, the orifice is again plastered
up, and both male and female attend to the wants of the young which are
left. On several occasions I o