90 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



and they confine themselves almost exclusively to the evergreen forests, 

 where they frequent the very highest trees. Their note is very peculiar 

 and can. be heard at the distance of a mile or more. It commences with a 

 series of whoops, uttered at intervals of about half a minute for five or ten 

 minutes ; then the interval between each whoop grows shorter and shorter, 

 till the whoop, whoop, whoop is repeated very quickly ten or a dozen times 

 the bird ending up by going off into a harsh quacking laugh. There is 

 then a pause of ten minutes or a quarter of an hour or more, and then it 

 recommences." He adds that the specimen shot by him had eaten 

 fruit. 



Genus ANTHRACOCEROS, Eeich. 



478. ANTHRACOCEEOS ALBIROSTEIS *. 



THE SMALL PIED HORNBILL. 



Buceros albirostris, Shaw, Gen. Zool. viii. p. 13; Tickett, Ibis, 1864, p. 179. 

 Hydrocissa albirostris, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 247 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 82 ; BL 

 B. Burm. p. 68 ; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 455 ; Inylis, S. F. v. p. 20 ; 

 Bingham, 8. F. v. p. 84 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 577 ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. 

 vi. p. 100; Oates, S. F. vii. p. 46; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 86; Bingham, S. F. viii. 

 p. 462, ix. p. 158. Anthracoceros malabaricus (Gm.), Elliot, Mon. Bucer. 

 pi. xiii, (part.). 



Description. Male and female. Abdomen, sides of the body, vent and 

 under tail-coverts white; the remainder of the plumage black, more or 

 less glossy ; the four outer pairs of tail-feathers very broadly tipped with 

 white; all the secondaries and all the primaries except the first two 

 tipped with white; edge of the wing white. 



Bill vellowish white ; the base of the casque and an oblong patch on the 

 fore part dark brown ; base of both mandibles black, extending to the fore 

 part of the naked skin of the face ; orbital skin bluish white ; mouth dark 

 ochraceous brown ; edges of eyelids brown ; iris red to brown ; legs dusky 

 green ; claws horny. The female has a patch of reddish brown in front of 

 the black of the lower mandible, and there is considerably more brown on 

 both mandibles and on the casque than in the male. 



Length 28 inches, tail 11, wing 11, tarsus 2, bill from gape 5. The female 

 is smaller : wing 10, tail 10, bill from gape 4'5. In the very young bird 

 there is no casque. 



The casque of this Hornbill is rather cylindrical and reaches over about 



* As Mr. Hume lias shown, Gmelin's name of malabaricus applies rather to A. affinis 

 than to the present species. In any case I think it preferable to use Shaw's name. 



