DICHOCEROS. 489 



feathers generally elongated ; tarsi short, stout, transversely scutate in front, 

 reticulated behind ; outer toe joined to the middle one nearly to the apex \ 

 inner toe less so. They live in pairs, and subsist entirely on fruit, which they 

 swallow whole, fkst tossing it up in- the air after breaking it off the tree, and 

 catching it again. They breed in holes of trees> and lay 2 4 white eggs. The 

 male birds is said to plaster up the female during the whole time of incubation 

 and till the young are fledged* In fact,. Mr. Wallace vouches for this. Mr. 

 Hume quotes an account of his nesting experience of D. bicornis in Sumatra 

 to the same effect. It is, as he says, " one of those strange facts in Natural 

 History which are stranger than fiction." 



Gen. DichOCeroS. Gloger. 



Bill with a broad flat casque, extending backwards over the head for more 

 than half the length of the bill, and descending to meet the bill at a right angle. 

 Plumage black and white. 



1127- DichOCerOS bicornis (Linn.), Hume, Nests and Eggs 

 Ind. B. p. 112; Blyth and Wald., B. Burm. p. 68; Elliot, Mon. Bucer. pi. 

 vi. ; Wardlaw- -Ramsay \ Ibis, 1877, P- 4545 Oates, B. Br. Burmah, if. p. 87. 

 Buceros bicornis, Linn., Syst. Nat, i. p.. 153. Buceros cavatus, Shaw, Gen. 

 Zool. viii. p. 18. Buceros homrai, Hodgs., y, A* S* B. i. p. 2-51. Homrais 

 bicornis, Jerd., B. Ind. i. p. 242, No. 140. Dichoceros homrai, Hnme, 

 Nests and Eggs Ind. B. p. in ; id., Str. F. iii. p. 55. Dichoceros cavatus, 

 Bourdillon and Hume, Str. F. iv_ p. 384 ; Inglis, Str. F. v. p. 20 ; Hume 

 and Dav., Str* F, vi. p. 98; Oates, Str. F. vii. p. 45; Hume, Str. F. 

 viii. p. 86; Bingham, Sir. F. viii. p. 4.61 ;. ix. p. 158.: The. GREAT PIED 

 HORNBILL, 



Head and a band round the base of the bill' black ; a. broad band round the 

 neck white, tinged with fulvous ; lower rump, upper and under tail coverts, 

 tower abdomen and vent white ; tail white; with a broad band ; of black towards 

 the terminal third ; rest of the plumage black ; quills broadly tipped with 

 white, and with a white wing spot formed by the edges of the greater coverts ; 

 base of the primaries white (the first two excepted) ;. primary coverts tipped 

 with yellowish white. 



Bill and casque yellow, tinged with orange at the tip and in^ the middle ;. 

 base of the casque, a triangular patch on each side of the anterior end of it 

 with the junction of the casque and bill black ; cutting edges black ; orbitar 

 skin black. In the female the lower mandible is whitish, the base black ; 

 upper mandible and casque yellowish orange, turning red at the base and at 

 the tip of the casque ; base of upper mandible near the eye and orbitar skin 

 black ; irides bluish white ; eyelid's orange brown ; legs plumbeous. 



Length. 51 inches ; tail 18*5 ; wing 20*5 ; tarsus 2'8 ; bill from gape P0'3. 

 The female is smaller, and measures only 46 inches, with a wing of 19' 5 ; 

 bill from gape 9*5. 



