athers, 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 her
young family.

Strange to say, the prisoner generally becomes 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 is somewhat unusual, as Captain Redwood remarked, for the prisoner to
fatten, while the keeper pines!

The toucan of South America also forms her nest in the cavity of a tree,
and, like the hornbill, plasters up the aperture with mud.

The hornbill's beak, added Captain Redwood, is slightly curved,
sharp-pointed, and about two inches long.

While the body of the rooster was sputtering away in the bright blaze,
Saloo entertained the party by telling them what _he_ knew about the
habits of the hornbills; and this was a good deal, for he had often
caught them in the forests of Sumatra. It may be remarked here, that
many of the natives of the Malayan Archipelago possess a considerable
knowledge of natural history, at least of its practical part. The
reason is, that the Dutch, who own numerous settlements throughout these
islands, have always been great taxidermists and skin-preservers, and to
procure specimens for them and obtain the reward, has naturally
originated a race of collectors among the native people. Saloo himself
had been one of these bird-hunters, in early life, before taking to the
sea, which last, as a general thing, is the favourite element and
profession of a Malay.

He told them that he knew of two kinds of hornbill in his native island
of Sumatra, but that he had seen the skins of several other species in
the hands of the taxidermists, brought from various islands, as well as
from the mainland of India, Malacca, and Cochin-China. They were all
large birds, though some were smaller than the others; mostly black,
with white markings about the throat and breast. He said that their
nests are always built in the hollow of a tree, in the same way as the
one he had robbed, and the entrance to them invariably plastered up with
mud in a similar fashion, leaving a hole just big enough to allow the
beak of the hen to be passed out, and opened a little for the reception
of the food brought to her by her mate. It