72 BTTCEROTIDJE. 



tuberance above the upper mandible, the rudiment it would seem 

 of the future casque." 



A large series of these eggs obtained by Major Bingham show 

 that they vary in shape from very broad ovals, obtuse at both ends, 

 to moderately elongated ones, distinctly pointed at the small end. 

 Quite clearly when first laid they are pure white and have a certain 

 amount of gloss ; as incubation proceeds they lose this gloss, and 

 become more and more stained, until some eggs are a nearly uniform 

 dusky chocolate-brown. The shell is tolerably hard and compact, 

 but it is very commonly thickly set with tiny pimples and rugosities, 

 and in most specimens the entire surface is somewhat conspicuously 

 pitted with pores. Some tolerably fresh eggs, before they have lost 

 their gloss and whilst they have only acquired a creamy tinge, might 

 really be mistaken for pale eggs of Peafowl. 



Anthracoceros albirostris (Shaw). The Small Pled Hornbill. 



Hydrocissa albirostris (Shaiv'), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 247 ; Hume, Cat. 

 no. 142. 



Mr. Gates, writing from Pegu, says : " My man on the 20th 

 March procured one egg of this species. The egg was hatched a few 

 moments before it reached me. It measured 1'8 x 1'3, and was a 

 deep reddish brown. Its natural colour was originally white I 

 should think. On the 22nd March my man again took a nest, 

 killing the female and bringing me the head. The eggs were three 

 in number, pure white and rather glossy. They were well incu- 

 bated and difficult to blow. The nest was also in a wood-oil tree 

 about 90 feet from the ground in a cavity among the lower 

 branches. These three eggs measure 1-81, 1-76, and 1-75, by 1'35, 

 1*3, and 1*25 respectively." 



Major C. T. Bingham found the nest of this Hornbill in Tenas- 

 serim. He says : " About a mile and a half from my camp, 

 crowning the top of a low hill and towering high above the rest of 

 the trees, stood a giant pymma (Layerstrcemia flos regince). On 

 the 23rd March I found a nest of the above-mentioned Hornbill in 

 a hole in a huge decayed branch of this tree, fully 50 feet above 

 the ground. To ascend the tree I had to get a ladder prepared, 

 which a couple of Karens accomplished in about an hour and a 

 half. It was constructed of bamboo, the rungs consisting of 

 tough short pieces driven into the tree and tied at their other ends 

 to a couple of long bamboos, which formed the outer side piece of 

 the ladder. So firm and strong did the affair look, that I went up 

 myself and was able to examine the nest closely. This was, 

 as I have said, in the stump of a decayed branch ; but the entrance 

 to the hole was greatly contracted by a substance that looked like 

 the bird's own dung ; on one side, however, an opening had been 

 left, a mere slit, about 10 inches long by 2| inches in breadth, 

 through which evidently the female received food. After carefully 

 inspecting the outside of the nest, I proceeded to break it open with 

 a dah or Burmese knife I had taken up ; and soon made a hole 



