THREE UNPUBLISHED PAPEBS BY BLYTH. 251 



Genus Bucco, L.* 



Bill large, conical, wide at base, more or less compressed for 

 about tbe terminal half, the tomise smooth, and base of the upper 

 mandible continued backward to the gape; culmen obtusely 

 rounded ; and the tips of both mandibles generally of equal 

 length, the vibrissse surrounding the bill well developed. These 

 birds are peculiar to S. E. Asia and its islands, where very 

 numerous species exist, from the size of a Jay downward, all of 

 which are bright green, varied chiefly about the head and neck 

 with every brilliant colour, though a few have these parts dull 

 whitish, more or less lineated with dusky. Their other characters 

 have been alread}- stated. 



B. GRANDis, Gmelin ; Gould's 'Century,' jjl. 4G.— Length 

 about 1 ft. ; of wing 5^ in., and tail 1 in. ; bill to forehead If in., 

 or nearly so. Colour of the back, scapularies, secondary wing- 

 coverts, and breast, brown ; head and neck dusky indigo-blue, 

 divided from the brown of the back by a narrow yellowish white 

 half-collar ; hinder half of the wings, rump, and tail, green ; the 

 primaries and their coverts bluish externally ; and the lower tail- 

 coverts crimson ; flanks brown, the feathers margined laterally 

 with yellowish white, imparting a streaked appearance ; the middle 

 of the belly dull bluish. Bill yellowish white, with dusky tip, in 

 the dry specimen. Young very similar, but the colours less 

 defined apart, and the nuchal half-collar and lateral margins of 

 the feathers of the flanks are more of a golden hue ; the size also 

 is smaller, the bill less developed, and the feathers are of more 

 open texture (as usual in young birds). The name was founded 

 on Buff'on's description of le Grand Barhu (Ois. vii. 106), which, 

 though received from China, appears to be identical with the 

 common Himalayan bird described above ; although the play of 

 colours on the head and back which he notices is not very per- 

 ceptible. Eastward, we have seen it from Cherra Punji (N. of 

 Sylhet), but not hitherto from Assam, though doubtless inhabiting 

 the mountain ranges of that province ; and it does not appear to 



* Mr. G. R. Gray has changed this name to Megalaima, reserving the 

 name Bucco for a genus of Tamatiidce., a species of which he considers to 

 be the first or typical iJwcco of Linnaeus ; but the name is so well estubhshed 

 for the present group, that we consider the alteration unadvisable. Indeed, 

 the name Bucco would seem rather to indicate the Asiatic Barbets. 



