TICKELL'S HORNBILL, 97 



blurk or dark plumbeous; claws horn-colour. Young male : bill yellow, 

 basal half greenish ; orbital skin straw-yellow ; iris grey ; legs greyish 

 green; claws horn-colour. Adult female : bill yellowish, irregularly 

 blotched with greenish ; orbits dull brownish yellow, with a livid patch at 

 the hind corner of each eye; iris light brown; legs dull livid plumbeous ; 

 claws horn-colour. Another female, apparently immature : skin round eye 

 brownish; ridge of upper mandible yellowish horny, remainder of the 

 bill dirty brown ; legs dark brown ; iris brown ; claws black. 



Male : length 29 inches, tail 12'5, wing 13, tarsus 1*9, bill from gape 

 4-6 to 5'2. Female : length 27 inches, tail 11-5, wing 12, tarsus T8, bill 

 from gape 4. 



The above descriptions are taken from a beautiful series of birds in 

 Captain Bingham's collection. Mr. Hume states that the female differs 

 from the male in having the lower plumage earthy brown, and in having 

 the amount of white in the tippings of the wings and tail reduced in extent; 

 but two females in Capt. Bingham's collection are absolutely like the males 

 in plumage except that one, of which it is noted that it was caught on the 

 nest, has the lower surface a dull ferruginous brown. This is due, I think, 

 to the peculiar habits of the nesting female, who never leaves the nest the 

 whole time incubation is proceeding. The feathers, under these circum- 

 stances, must necessarily become dull coloured by abrasion, but otherwise 

 there is no difference in colour between her and the male. 



TickelPs Hornbill is remarkably local, being, so far as is at present 

 known, entirely confined to the tract of country in Tenasserim lying to the 

 east of Moulmein. Messrs. Davison and Darling and Capt. Bingham met 

 with it at various places the names of which are carefully recorded in their 

 writings ; but the area may be described as extending from the head of the 

 Thoungyeen river to its junction with the Sal ween, and right across the 

 valley from ridge to ridge. 



This Hornbill, according to all accounts, is one of the most wary of its 

 tribe except at the breeding-season, when it appears in some measure to 

 put aside its fears. In the many instances in which Capt. Bingham found 

 the nests they were situated quite low down in holes of trees, and the 

 male birds were easily approached. The breeding-season is in February 

 and March ; the eggs vary in number from two to five and are white. 



These Hornbills are apparently arboreal and frugivorous, never descend- 

 ing to the ground. 



A. austeni, from the Cachar hills, described by Dr. Jerdon from a speci- 

 men procured by Col. Godwin- Austen, appears to differ from A. tickelli 

 in being larger and in having the throat, sides of the neck and the bases of 

 the primaries white. 



I have not been able to examine the type, which is said to be in the 

 British Museum. 



VOL. II. H 



