.294 Lord Tvveeddale on Birds from 



tius ; and his account was ti'anscribed by Ray in his English 

 translation (1678) of Willughby's ' Ornithology.' By Ray 

 it is called " Bontius his Indian Crow/^ and is said to come 

 from the " Molucca Islands, especially Banda." An outline 

 drawing of the bill is given (t. Ixxviii.), which accurately re- 

 sembles the bill of an adult example of the Papuan B. rvficollis. 

 It may here be mentioned, parenthetically, that while it is 

 not always easy to recognize a species, or to differentiate one 

 from another nearly allied species, through the means of a 

 complete drawing of a bird made at the early date of Ray's 

 edition, still the art of outline-drawing was as perfect then 

 as it is now, and that such delineations are quite reliable. 

 The bold broad folds on the posterior part of the culmen 

 of the bill which characterize the Papuan Hornbill, are 

 plainly and accurately rendered in Ray's plate ; and the total 

 absence of lateral grooves and ridges on the basal walls of the 

 two mandibles enables us to determine without doubt that 

 the bill represented belonged to the Papuan, and not to its 

 near ally, the Malayan species. 



On Ray's* outline drawing of the bill Latham founded his 

 Wreathed Hornbill (Synop. i. p. 858, 1781). Gmelin gave 

 to this species the title of Buceros obscurus (S. N. i. p. 362, 

 1788). In his first supplement to his 'Synopsis,' Latham 

 (p. 70, 1787t) added a reference to a passage in Dampier's 

 'Voyage' (iii. pt. 2, p. 165 J, t. 3), and identified the bird, 

 there described as having been killed in Ceram and on New 

 Guinea, with his " Wreathed Hornbill." In the ' Index 

 Ornithologicus ' (i. p. 116, 1790), Latham gave his 

 " Wreathed Hornbill " a Latin title, and called it Buceros 

 plicatus. It seems therefore that the Gmelinian title of ob- 

 scurus and Latham's title of plicatus apply to the Papuan 



* I have not been able to consult an original copy of Willug-hby's work. 

 It may be that in it Willughby gives an account of the Hornbill described 

 by Bontius. 



t Can any learned bibliographer explain how Latham, in his first Sup- 

 plement (1787), was able to quote from Gmelin's edition of the ' Systema,' 

 published in 1788 ? 



X The coiTect number of the page is 231, and Latham, as well as J. R. 

 Forster before him, transcribed the misprint on Dampier's plate no. 8. 



