about the size of a canary. It is called burong untong, "the bird of good fortune," because its nest, a very small and quite white one, secures a good harvest if it is found and placed in a paddy-granary. The nest is rare, and a genuine one will sometimes fetch as much as ten dollars in places where its virtues are believed in.
Tinggal anak.—A Small bird with a plaintive call of three notes, which the Malays interpret to be tinggal anak! "Good-bye! children." They believe that this bird never lives to see its young ones grow up. As soon as her eggs are hatched the mother-bird dies on the nest, and the young ones are reared on the maggots which breed in her dead body. It is in anticipation of her fate that she utters her mournful cry, which is always heard in the spring of the year when the young paddy is sprouting.
Owls.—There are several kinds of owls, all of which, more or less, are believed to be the harbingers of sickness or death. Of one kind (jampuk), which often enters hen-roosts at night, the Malays entertain the extraordinary belief that it lives on the intestines of fowls, which it draws out with its claws a tergo without causing pain to the bird, all feeling being dulled by the use of a spell called pe-lali.
The great Malay Hornbill (Onceros rhinoceros, L.).—The Malays tell the following legend about this bird to account for the curious cry which it makes:—
A Malay, in order to be revenged on his mother-in-law who had offended him, shouldered his axe and made his way to the poor woman's house and began to cut through the posts which supported it. After a few steady chops the whole edifice came tumbling down, and he greeted its fall with a peal of laughter. To punish him for his unnatural conduct he was turned into a bird, and the tëhang mentuah (literally, he who choppered down his mother-in-law) may often be heard in the jungle uttering a series of sharp sounds like the chops of an. axe on timber, followed by Ha! ha! ha! ha![1]
The White-crested Hornbill (Berenicornis cornatus).—Col. Yule in his Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases has a note about the toucan, and remarks upon the coincidence observable in
- ↑ See "Malayan Ornithology," by Capt. Kelham, Journal, Straits Branch, Royal Asiatic Society No. 9, p. 130.
