Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
prehensile, and is probably made use of as an additional support while feeding. It is said to
have only a single young one at a time, and my own observation confirms this statement, for
I once shot a female, with a very small blind and naked little creature clinging closely to its
breast, which was quite bare and much wrinkled, reminding me of the young of Marsupials,
to which it seemed to form a transition. On the back, and extending over the limbs and
membrane, the fur of these animals is short, but exquisitely soft, resembling in its texture
that of the Chinchilla.
I returned to Palembang by water, and while staying a day at a village while a boat was
being made watertight, I had the good fortune to obtain a male, female, and young bird of
one of the large hornbills. I had sent my hunters to shoot, and while I was at breakfast they
returned, bringing me a fine large male, of the Buceros bicornis, which one of them assured
me he had shot while feeding the female, which was shut up in a hole in a tree. I had often
read of this curious habit, and immediately returned to the place, accompanied by several of
the natives. After crossing a stream and a bog, we found a large tree leaning over some wa-
ter, and on its lower side, at a height of about twenty feet, appeared a small hole, and what
looked like a quantity of mud, which I was assured had been used in stopping up the large
hole. After a while we heard the harsh cry of a bird inside, and could see the white extremity
of its beak put out. I offered a rupee to any one who would go up and get out the bird, with
the egg or young one; but they all declared it was too difficult, and they were afraid to try. I
therefore very reluctantly came away. In about an hour afterwards, much to my surprise, a
tremendous loud hoarse screaming was heard, and the bird was brought me, together with a
young one which had been found in the hole. This was a most curious object, as large as a
pigeon, but without a particle of plumage on any part of it. It was exceedingly plump and
soft, and with a semi-transparent skin, so that it looked more like a bag of jelly, with head
and feet stuck on, than like a real bird.
