of India and Burmah. 177 



and tear. In Nepal, according to the natives, the " Homrai " or 

 "Bun-rao" (King of the Woods) ascends the mountains to near 

 the snows during the hot weather. In the Tenasserim Provinces, 

 however, I have found it so late as April in the lowest and hot- 

 test forests, and never higher than 2000 feet above sea-level. 

 Our hill Hornbill in that country is B. [Aceros) nipalensis of 

 Hodgson, which 1 have shot on a spur of the great Mooleyit 

 peak, full 3500 feet above the sea. 



All the known species of the genus Buceros may be divided 

 into two groups as regards their flight. B. cavatus, B.pica, B. albi- 

 7-ostris, B. affinis, and B, bicoj-nis proceed with quick, short flaps, 

 alternating with soarings or sailings, on outstretched motionless 

 pinions ; while B. tickelli, B. nipalensis, and B. pusai-an have a 

 heavy, steady, ordinary flight. The voice of B. cavatus is prodi- 

 giously loud. Its roars re-echo through the hills, and it is difficult 

 at first to assign such sounds to a bird. As in other species of 

 which the notes are sharper, the noise is produced both in exhaling 

 and inhaling. B. cavatus when caught young is easily tamed, but 

 becomes bold rather than gentle, menacing a too near approach 

 with its huge bill, which inflicts severe bites. Those I have had 

 in my possession would not sufl"er themselves to be caressed, as 

 the smaller species B. albirostris is fond of doing. They flew 

 about the garden and grounds, resting on large trees or the roof 

 of the house, and often coining to the ground, where they pro- 

 gressed by sidelong hops, squatting occasionally on their heels 

 (or elbows) and searching for food in the grass, where they picked 

 up and swallowed insects and worms. I once saw one of them seize 

 a frog; but after nipping it and tossing it about, the bird relin- 

 quished it. Early of a morning, when the dew was heavy on 

 the ground, I have seen this bird go flapping through beds of 

 weeds or long grass till thoroughly saturated, when it would sit 

 in the sun, with expanded wings, drying itself like a Vultui-e or 

 Cormorant. This species, as well as B. albirostris and B. bicoj-nis, 

 has the same singular palsied jerk of the neck in moving the 

 head from side to side or up and down — a peculiarity owing 

 perhaps to the rigidity of the connecting ligaments of the cervical 

 vertebrae, as described by the late Dr. Bramley when residency- 

 surgeon in Nipal. In a captive state, I have never heard this 



