Emphasis Preaching Journal

The female hornbill of east and south Africa is an unusual bird. She is a large but an unattractive bird with an enormous bill often surmounted by a colorful hornlike casque. She also has a remarkable practice in laying eggs. She is walled into a hollow tree by the male. She incubates two to four white eggs in her imprisonment and then cares for the young until they can fly. The male feeds the female through a small slit in the mud wall.

In a word, the female hornbill sacrifices her freedom to the point of death, if necessary, so that her young might have life and fly away.