BIRDS OF TBNASSEBIM. 101 



[This species ranges throughout Tenasserun. It is very abun- 

 dant, indeed, in those portions of the country that are covered 

 with moderately thin jungle or deciduous trees, or secondary 

 scrub. It is very partial to detached groves and small clumps 

 of trees growing in cultivated tracts, and is not uncommonly 

 met with in gardens in the immediate vicinity of houses, and 

 is almost always to be met with on the banks of rivers where 

 these are not too heavily wooded. 



In the teak forests about Pahpoon, where the trees are scat- 

 tered and there is comparatively little undergrowth, all along 

 the banks of the Salween, where these are moderately wooded, 

 all about Moulmein, in the sparsely wooded portions of the 

 country lying between the Sittang and Salween, in the thin dry 

 deciduous jungle between Moulmein and Tavoy, and all about 

 Tavoy and southwards in suitable localities, it is excessively 

 numerous ; but in the heavy evergreen virgin forests of the 

 south of the province it is hardly ever met with. In the island 

 of Mergui, on which nearly all the original forest has been felled 

 and replaced by gardens and secondary scrub, it is also common, 

 and it is not unfrequently met with along the banks of the 

 Pakckan where the country is open or cultivated. 



It is an excessively noisy bird, going about in parties of 

 from 5 to 15 or more, uttering in chorus at short intervals, a 

 series of discordant cackling notes. 



It feeds on different kinds of fruit, especially wild figs.* 



Its flight, for a Hornbill comparatively noiseless, is per- 

 formed with alternate flapping and sailing. — W. D.] 



The following are dimensions of numerous specimens recorded 

 in the flesh : — 



Males— Length, 27*5 to 29*5; expanse, 35*75 to 37 ; tail, 10*5 

 to 1T5 ; wing, 10*5 to 11*12 ; tarsus, 2 to 2- 12 ; bill from gape, 

 straight to point, 4'9 to 5*4 • weight" 1*5 to l*751bs. 

 • Females.— Length, 26*25 to 27 ; expanse, 33 to 35*25 ; tail, 

 95 to 10-5 ; wing, 95 to 10'5 ; tarsus, 2 to 2-12; bill from gape, 

 4 to 4-7 ; weight, 1*25 to l-51bs. 



The measurements of bill and casque of our finest speci- 

 mens of each sex are as follows : — 



Male. — Length of casque at top along curve, 5*75 ; height of 

 casque, 1 '3; bill from gape straight to point, 5*4; greatest 

 depth of the two mandibles exclusive of casque, 1*5. 



Female. — Length of casque at top along curve, 3*8 ; height 

 of casque, 0-9 ; bill from gape straight to point, 4*7 ; greatest 

 depth of the two mandibles exclusive of casque, 1*4. 



In both sexes the legs and feet vary from plumbeous to 

 dirty greenish horny ; the bills, except in the blackish or black- 



* " Extremely partial to dead snakes," Wardlaw Ramsay. As to its fish-eating 

 propensities, see S, F,, V., p. 20. 



