488 BUCEROTID^E. 



Adolescent birds have the wing coverts edged with fulvous. Bill deep crim- 

 son; legs coral red ; irides brown. 



Length. 14 inches ; tail 4 ; wing 5-8 ; tarsus O'6 ; bill from gape 37. 



jy0._British Burmah, extending along the Coast north to Bengal and 

 south to Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula. Gates says it occurs along the 

 whole sea ^coast line of British Burmah, going inland only as far as the tidal 

 waters penetrate. 



1126. Pelargopsis burmanica, Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 67; 



id., Mon. Alced. p, 109, pi. 35 ; Ball, Sir. F. i. p. 57 ; Hume, Sir. F. ii. 

 p. 165 ; iii. p. SO ; Blylh, B. Burm. p. 70 ; Bingham, Sir. F. v. p. 83 ; Hume 

 and Dav., Sir. F. vi. p. 73 ; Hume, Sir. F. viii. p. 85 ; Bingham, Sir. F. ix. 

 p. 154 ; Oates, B. Br. Burm. ii. p. 78. The BURMESE STORK-BILLED KING- 

 FISHER. 



Whole head brown ; entire under surface of the body, including the under 

 wing coverts, orange buff, paler on the chin and throat ; lower neck, breast and 

 abdomen with undulating cross bars of brown ; collar round the neck orange 

 buff ; upper back and upper surface of body greenish blue ; lower back, 

 rump and the shorter tail coverts ultramarine blue ; quills greenish blue 

 externally, and brown on the inner webs ; tail purplish blue. The female has 

 the feathers of the back and scapulars tinged with brown. Bill dark red, 

 brown at the tip ; irides dark brown ; legs pale red. 



Length. 14*5 inches ; tail 4-5 ; wing 6; tarsus 07 ; bill from gape 375. 



Hab. British Burmah, where Oates says it is abundant over the whole of 

 Pegu and Tenasserim. It is also recorded from the Andaman Islands and 

 from Siam, and it is said to extend down the Malay Peninsula. Oates adds 

 that it has a very loud and striking note and that it feeds on fish and reptiles. 

 The nest he found in a hole of a river bank near Pegu in April contained 

 four eggs ; though the colour is not stated, they were, of course, pure white. 

 Pelargopsis intermedia, Hume, is found in the Nicobar Islands. 



Family. BUCEROTID^EHORNBILLS. 



A group of large birds distinguished by the enormous size of their bills 

 which are arched or curved, and have in most species an appendage or casque 

 placed above the culmen from the base to about the middle of the upper 

 mandible, or is as large as the bill itself. This is hollow and cellular inter- 

 nally, and in one or two species solid. The bill is wide -at the base and more 

 or less dilated ; the tip is acute and the margins denticulated. The casque is 

 small at first and is developed by age. The throat is usually naked, also the 

 sides of the face and the orbital region ; eyelids protected by eyelashes ; wings 

 short and ample, the 4th and 5th quills longest ; secondaries long and nearly 

 equal to the primaries ; tail of ten feathers, long, rounded, the centre pair of 



