] 54 BUCEROTIDjE. 



Female. Crown, chin, tips of wing-feathers, and whole tail 

 white, rest of plumage black, shafts of crest-feathers black. In 

 the young male most of the white feathers are black at the base, 

 and the tail is black with white tips. 



Bill black, slightly mottled with green at the base of both 

 mandibles ; iris wax-yellow ; facial skin deep dull blue ; legs and 

 feet black. In younger birds the bill is chiefly dull horny green, 

 and the facial skin pale blue or pink. 



Length of adult male about 40 ; tail 18 ; wing 15 ; tarsus 2*5 ; 

 bill from gape 7. Females a little less : wing 14, bill 5- 75. 



Distribution. Malayan Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo, ranging 

 into Southern Tenasserim as far as the base of Nwalabo, near 

 Tavoy. 



Habits, $G. According to Davison this Hornbill is found in 

 forests about the lower trees and undergrowth ; it lives in small 

 parties, often feeding on the ground and eating lizards, &c., as 

 well as fruit ; the flight is uniform and almost noiseless ; the call 

 a peculiar cry (a mewing sound according to Hartert) repeated 

 several times in quick succession. 



LOPHOCEROS, Hemp. & Ehr., 1828. 



Size small. Casque either small, compressed, and terminating 

 anteriorly in a point or entirely wanting. Bill much curved, 

 carinate above. Tail graduated in all Indian species. Crest 

 moderate. Plumage of Indian birds chiefly grey. 



I refer to this African type (which is identical with Tockus 

 of Lesson) the three small Hornbills of India and Ceylon. By 

 Jerdou, Hume, and others they have been divided into two 

 genera ; by Ogilvie Grant they have been united and placed in a 

 genus apart from their African relatives on account of their more 

 wedge-shaped tail. This distinction I find does not hold good ; 

 neither Indian nor African forms are all alike in the relative 

 lengths of the rectrices. I do not place the Indian L. birostris in 

 a separate genus from the other two species, because the type of 

 Lophoceros, the Abyssinian L. nasutus, closely allied to the Indian 

 forms but without a casque, is only distinguished from the 

 S. African L. epirhinus by the presence in the latter of a small 

 casque, precisely like that of L. birostris, but smaller. It is clear 

 that in this group of small Hornbills the presence or absence of a 

 small casque is not a generic character. 



The genus Lophoceros comprises 17 African species ; two occur 

 in the Peninsula of India and one in Ceylon. None extend 

 farther east. 



Key to the Species. 



a. A small casque, pointed in front L. birostris, p. 155. 



b. No casque. 



'. Nostrils in an elongate groove L. griseus, p. 156. 



b'. Nostrils round, not in a groove L. gingalensis, p. 157. 



