1844-45.] DESCEIPTIONS OF SOME NEW SPECIES OF BIEDS. 7 



which is the last. The casque becomes compressed as it advances on the bill, and is at last 

 narrowed into a point : its anterior edge instead of being perpendicular with the occipital plane, 

 forms with it (supposing the occipital plane to be continued) an obtuse angle, and consequently 

 an acute angle with the true culmen. The margins of the bill are serrated ; and tlie whole bill Madr. Journ. 

 is a miniature resemblance of that of our common Malabar Hornbill, B. pica. ^ih ^ ^^- 



The first and second quills are formed similarly to those of B. violaceus. 



Dimensions. ■ , 



mehos. 

 Total length 34 



Wing 13 



Tarsus 9-^- 



Hallux i-5_ 



Culmenoid ridg-e 5-2- 



° '-'10 



True culmen 3 .4- 



Bill from gape 5-8_ 



„ „ nostril 6-^A_ 



Gonys ^,-6_ 



o 



10 



This Hornbill would be identical with Eyton's bicolor if the three lateral rectrices and the 

 tips of the rest of the tail were white (rectricibus tertiis lateralibus caudaeque apicibus albis) ; but 

 as this species has got the tips only of its four lateral rectrices white, and the two middle tail- 

 feathers wholly black, it does not agree with Eyton's description. 



PiCUS MELANOGASTEE *, n. sp. 



A very distinctly marked species of Woodpecker from Malacca, and apparently new ; the 



only two specimens I possess are not in full plumage, their general colours being as follows : 



Back and wings when closed red-maroon with a waxy gloss ; uropygium of a dull rusty brovs^n, 

 or of duller and browner tint than the back ; head (as seen in my immature specimen) rusty 

 brown, with the forehead much lighter and inclining to tawny brown ; the usual Picine crest not 

 much developed and longest at the nape, where the tips of the feathers are of a bright crimson 

 or almost blood-red, and bearing in colour and texture, though not in form, a somewhat similar 

 resemblance to the tips of the secondary quills of the Waxwings ; the whole of the underparts 

 excepting the chin are dark olive rusty-brown, almost inclining to black, and to which colour I 

 suspect the feathers of the old birds turn ; the chin and forehead are similar in colour ; the Madr. Joum. 

 upper tail-coverts and the rectrices are brownish black, barred with lighter bauds, the middle ^.'.*:- '^ f^, 

 rectrices not forming an exception ; first quills of the wing almost spurious and the outer webs 

 of the primaries are distinctly spotted, and their inner webs more faintly barred with a colour 

 similar to the caudal bands. The bill is ivory-white, and the feet in the dried skin black. 



This bird's generic characters seem to place it near the genus Bendrocojius, if not in it. 



* [=Lc2)occstes 2'Ofj)7t)jroniehs (Boic). — Ed.] 



xiii. p. lo4. 



