BIRDS THAT IMPRISON AND FEED THEIR MATES.

Evening Star, Issue 9775, 3 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

BIRDS THAT IMPRISON AND FEED THEIR MATES.

A STRANGE CASE FROM SOUTH AFRICA.

One South African bird—called at the Cape the " butcher bird "—has the ghoulioh habit of killing smaller birds, extracting and eating their brains, and then impaling the bodies of the little victims on the four-inch-long thorns of the "wait-a-bit" bushes. Another very curious bird is the variety of hornbill known as Tochis melanoleuem, Licht., regarding which a paper by Dr Schonland, of the Albany Museum, was read at a recent meeting of the South African Philosophical Society at Cape Town. The nesting habits of this hornbill are so extraordinary that they have been repeatedly referred to by various writers; but, owing to the difficulty of finding the nests of the birds, many details of the earlier accounts are not quite correct, while others are not touched upon at all. During the last four years Dr Schiinland has examined, he said, no fewer than seven uests altogether, with the birds belonging to most of them. The birds are often seen in winter in large numbers in the gardens at Graham's Town, but in summer they are only to be met with in proximity to closelywooded kloofs, and this is due to the fact that they nest in places where hollow trees are to be found. All observers agree that during incubation the female is a prisoner in a kind of cage, the- entrance to which is closed to such an extent that it has to be broken open befoie the female can leave the nest. In all the cases he had seen the nests were built in hollow trees. Mrs Barber had said that they sometimes made the nest between the crowded stems of the tall euphorbia, but that could not be reconciled with some of her other statements. The birds had apparently no preference for any particular tree so long as it suited their purpose. The essential point for them was that the hollow stem should be sufficiently large for the female to move about in the nest, and whether there is one or more entrances all must be of such a nature that they can be partially or wholly closed up. The female, once inside, is fed by the male through the narrow slit left in the material with which the entrance is closed, or through a Datural cleft in the wood. In the latter case the main entrance is closed up completely. This may be a precautionary measure to protect the female during the season of incubation. He questioned the statement whether the male built or the female, as Livingstone stated he had been told by a Native the female took an essential part in the plastering up of the entrance. Having described

the nests whioh he had seen, he proceeded to state that the female, after going,into the nest, usually began to moult, and was sometimes almost naked. She was usually very fat while in her prison, as the male bird brought her food every few minutes. As soon as danger approached the female bird climbed up tho neat as far as possiblo away from the entrance, and kept perfectly quiet until tho danger hail past. The young behaved in the same manner, the birds relying for protection on the fact that the nest is not caaily recognised as such. No doubt if attacked the hornbill oould give a good account of itself. The female is imprisoned for seven or eight weeks, certainly for not less than six weeks. The eggs are laid about the end of December or beginning of January, and are usually three or four in number, and vary in size. He felt certain, from minute observation, the female constructed her own prison, and left it some time before the young were fully developed. Ou her leaving it was plastered up again in the same manner, and the female helped the male to feed the young. He concluded by stating that there was still plenty of scope for further investigation into the nesting habits of the hornbill.— * Argus.'