1877.] DISTEICT or LAMPONG, S.E. SUMATEA, 483 



male as " yellow, with the transverse black bars indistinct." In a Malaccan example of an adult 

 male I find traces of only one black bar. Schlegel (Mus. Pays-Bas, Buceros, p. 2) states that the 

 Javan bird has an oblique blue bar across the throat of the male, but does not mention any 

 bar on that of the female. 



The title of this Hornbill has been by most ornithologists, commencing with Latham, 

 confounded with that of the strictly and only Papuan member of this family, Buceros ruJicolUs, 

 Vieill. The first notice of the Papuan species occurs in Bontius ; and his account was IWs, 1877, 

 transcribed by Pay in his English translation (1G78) 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 

 resembles the bill of an adult example of the Papuan B. ruficoUis. It may here be mentioned, 

 parenthetically, that Avhile 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 IlornUll (Synop. i. 



p. 358, 1781). Gmelin gave to this species the title of Buceros ohscurus (S. N. i. p. 362, 1788). 



In his first supplement to his ' Synopsis,' Latham (p. 70, 1787 f) 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. 146, 1790), Latham gave his "Wreathed Hornbill" a Latin title, and 



called it Buceros plicatus. It seems therefore that the Gmelinian title of ohscurus and Latham's 



title of vlicatus apply to the Papuan Hornbill, and not to the Malayan. In the ' General I'^s, 1877, 



.. D 295 



History' (ii. p. 323, 1822) Latham mixed up his original species with Le Vaillant's Callao javan 



(I. c.) and Shaw's species founded on Le Vaillant's plate (Ois. d'Afrique) ; but the plate (xxxiv.) 



given by Latham plainly refers to the Papuan species. 



In D'Entrecasteaux's ' Voyage ' (ix. p. 304, t. xi.), a Hornbill obtained in the Papuan 



island of Waigiou is figured, on which the title of Buceros ruficolUs, Vieillot (N. Diet. iv. p. 600, 



1810), was founded (Temm. PI. Col. 557). But J. R. Forster had already (Zool. Indica, p. 40, 



1781) bestowed the title of B. plicatus on Dampier's Ceram Hornbill. Vieillot's title, usually 



adopted for the Papuan species, therefore ought to fall ; and that of i)Ucat'US, Forster, having 



priority, should supersede Gmelin's title of ohscurus, and Latham's title plicatus, and stand for 



* I have not been able to consult an original copy of WiUughby'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 Supplement (1787), was able to quote Gmelin's 

 edition of the ' Systema,' published in 1788 ? 



X The correct number of the page is 231, and Latham, as well as J. R. Forster before him, transcribed the misprint on 

 Dampier's plate no. 3. 



