UXIC011S HOIiyBILL* 11 



exactly similar to the clucking of a hen: it was 

 fond of warmth, spreading its wings to the sun, 

 and shuddering at a passing cloud or breeze: it 

 lived only three months at Paris, dying before the 

 end of summer." 



This species, according to Monsr. Levaillant, is 

 found not only in Malabar, but in many other 

 parts of India, as well as in Ceylon and other In- 

 dian islands. Its length, according to this author, 

 is thirty inches from the top of the head to the end 

 of the tail, which itself measures twelve inches: its 

 colour is black, glossed with green and purple; the 

 breast, belly, thighs, and vent-feathers white : the 

 three outer feathers both of the wings and tail are 

 white, the three outer tail-feathers, being somewhat 

 shorter than the rest, cause the tail to be slightly 

 rounded at the extremity: the lower mandible, as 

 Buffon observes, is surrounded by a white wrinkled 

 skin, and the orbits of the eyes by a black one : 

 the casque or rostral appendix is flat on its hind 

 part, where it is wider than in other parts, and is 

 covered by the living skin of a black colour. This 

 species, according to Levaillant, has the largest 

 beak in proportion to its size of any bird of the 

 genus, since it measures nine inches in length, and 

 nearly five in depth, reckoning the appendix toge- 

 ther with the beak: the mandibles are curved and 

 strongly toothed: the casque is prolonged in front 

 into a kind of horn, and is flat on the sides, and 

 marked by two or three parallel furrows or streaks. 

 The female differs from the male in size, being 

 rather smaller, and in having the casque less ele- 



