9 8 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



Genus ACEKOS, Hodgs. 



484. ACEROS NIPALENSIS. 

 THE RUFOUS-NECKED HORNBILL. 



Buceros nepalensis, Hodgs. Calc. Glean. Sc. i. p. 249; id. P. Z. S. 1832, p. 15; 

 Tick. Ibis, 1864, p. 182. Aceros nipalensis, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 250 ; Bl. B. 

 Burm. p. 69 ; Gammie, S. F. iii. p. 209 ; Elliot, Mon. Bucer. pi. xlv. ; Hume fy 

 Dav. S. F. vi. p. 110 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 86. 



Description. Male. The whole head, neck and breast bright rufous; 

 abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts deep chestnut ; the feathers of the 

 neck long and covering the upper back ; back, rump, scapulars, wings and 

 upper tail-coverts glossy black ; the tips of the second to the fifth primaries 

 white ; the basal two thirds of the tail black, the terminal third white. 



The female is black throughout, the wings and upper plumage glossed 

 with green ; tips of the tail-feathers and some of the primaries white, as 

 in the male. 



The female has the naked space on the throat vermilion, heart-shaped, 

 bounded by a narrow grey-black band confined to the base of the lower 

 mandible and side of neck ; around the eye blue, under eyelid pink ; bill 

 pale waxy yellow, with two well-marked black bars at base of upper man- 

 dible; the lower has a pale soiled appearance for about 1J inch (Godwin- 

 Austen). Naked skin round the eyes and at base of bill rich velvety light 

 blue; the naked skin of the throat bright scarlet; bill yellow with the 

 grooved striae chestnut (Jerdori). 



Length 45 to 48 inches, tail 18, wing 18, tarsus 2'5, bill from gape 8. The 

 female is smaller : length 42 inches, tail 17, wing 16, bill from gape 7*5. 



The Rufous-necked Hornbill was observed, and a specimen procured, 

 in Tenasserim by Col. Tickell on a ridge near Mooleyit mountain; and 

 Mr. Davison saw the bird, but failed to secure specimens, at or near the 

 same locality. 



This Hornbill has been met with in Cachar and the hill-tracts of Eastern 

 Bengal, and it ranges along the Himalayas to Nipal. 



Mr. Gammie found the nest with a solitary egg in Sikhim in May, 

 situated in the hollow of a tree at a great height from the ground. 



Other Hornbills from adjoining countries not already mentioned are : 

 Buceros rhinoceros, from Malacca, with the point of the casque curled 

 upwards ; Cranorrhinus corrugatus, from the Malay peninsula, with the 

 terminal half of the tail chestnut ; Tockus griseus and T. gingalensis, from 

 India, both of a brownish colour and with no casque on the bill ; and 

 Lophoceros birostriSj also from India, with a sharp-pointed and projecting 

 casque. 



