1844-45.] DESCKIPTIONS OF SOME NEW SPECIES OF BIRDS. 5 



The bill is of a dull horn-colour mingled with yellowish white (in the dry state) ; there is no 

 decided casque rising from the upper mandible, the highest part of its culmen being hardly 

 higher than the occipital plane of the head ; the upper mandible most bulged at the region of 

 the nostrils, but much compressed beyond ; the margins of the bill are very plainly serrated, the 

 culmenoid crest is rounded and not sharp, it occupies two thirds of the true culmen, the curve 

 of which proceeds along its base in the form of a furrow or groove, which is lost in the swelling 

 of the bill near the nostrils. 



I regret not being able to detail the caudal structure, as my specimen is somewhat damaged ; 

 the claws are (as in most of the Buceridse) deeply grooved on their under surface, thus making 

 the lateral corneous sheathing quite thin and pliable. 



From Malacca. 



Dimensions. .^^^^^_ Madr.Joum. 



Total length 44 Lit. & Sc. 



■ITT. ___ T , xiii. p. 151. 



Wing 14 



Tarsus 2^ 



Hallux 1^ 



Bill from gape 6^ 



Bill from nostril in a straight line 5i% 



Culmenoid ridge 4 



True culmen 2-j^ 



Gonys 3t^ 



BucEROS MALATANUS, Raffles. Adult ? 



The whole of the plumage glossy black (appearing slightly green in certain lights), with the 

 exception of the lower ends of the four outermost tail-feathers and the coronal circle, which are 

 white ; bill and feet black. Three specimens are before me, two agreeing entirely in their 

 plumage, structure, and colouring of the bill, the other differing from them by having the 

 bill perfectly white, and its protuberance differently shaped, as if not fully developed, and in 

 having the white of the tips of the outer rectrices more developed : the crest also in this supposed 

 young bu"d is not so large, as if it also had not arrived at maturity. 



The bill without the casque in the adult bird is very similar to that of B. carinatus, Blyth, 

 while that of the young bird resembles it closely, the casque not being fully developed in front, 

 its superior margin hardly breaking the true culmen; the anterior edge of the casque in my 

 adult bird, on the contrary, is almost perpendicular to the occipital plane of the head, while its 

 posterior portion divides the feathers of the head, as it also does in the young bird; this posterior 

 portion is bulged and rounded; as the casque advances on the beak, it becomes compressed, and its 

 culmenoid ridge is so rendered quite sharp ; the commissure in the old bird is toothed as in the 

 Pteroglossi ; this is not so distinctly visible in the young bird. The gular region is clothed with 

 feathers, though the parts near the edges and angles of the lower mandible are bare ; this 

 nakedness is more marked in the young bird than in the old ones. The crest has its mesial 

 portion quite black, and the rest white, the black not being so extended posteriorly as the white. 



