102 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



ish brown portions, are pale yellowish white; the irides in 

 the adult are deep red, darkest towards the pupil, but one 

 female was recorded as having the irides wood brown, and 

 one young male had it pale hazel brown, while another 

 possibly older had it lake. 



The orbital skin and wide patch at base of lower mandible 

 is skim milk blue ; in a younger bird pale pinkish, with a bluish 

 tinge ; the eyelids black. 



Dr. Jerdon, in speaking of this species which he calls the 

 Bengal Pied Hornbill, and the nearly allied affinis, Hutton, 

 which he calls the Dehra Dhoon Hornbill, remarks of the 

 former : ci This Hornbill takes the place of coronata in Nor- 

 thern India. It is found in the Midnapoor jungles, in Raj- 

 mahal and Monghyr and at the base of the Himalayas, and it 

 spreads eastward to Assam, Sylhet, and Burmah." 



Of the .latter he says : " Has hitherto been found only in 

 the Dehra Doon." 



This, however, is not strictly correct. Our specimens show 

 that it is affinis which is found alike in the Dhoon, the Rohil- 

 kund Terai, the submontane districts of Oudh, the Darjeeling 

 Terai, Dacca, Midnapoor and the Khasia Hills. From Cachar*, 

 however, we have the present species, which should stand as 

 the Indo-Burmese Pied Hornbill, affinis standing as the 

 Indian Pied Hornbill. 



Both species are precisely similar in every respect, but they 

 differ so conspicuously in size that, in the absence of specimens 

 of intermediate size, I think they may be fairly maintained as 

 distinct. f 



* Jerdon, Ibis, 1872, p. 5, wrongly says : " This is the CacJiar bird noted by 

 Major Godwin-Austen in his list of birds (J. A. S. B., 1870, p. 95) as coronata." 

 Elliot, without verifying the reference, reproduces this error in his synonymy 

 (Monogr. Hornbills). The fact is the reference should be J. A. S. B., 1870, 266, and 

 the specimens were obtained not in Cachar, (which is low lands) but in the West 

 Khasia Hills. 



f My friend Mr. Elliot bas been misinformed, when in his monograph of the 

 JBuceroiida (only received when this was going to press) he states tliat as small birds 

 are found amongst Dehra Dhoon, examples as are met with from other localities. I 

 have given above the dimensions in the flesh of over 30 specimens of affinis and over 

 20 of malabzrica, and my readers can judge whether differences like these in dimen- 

 sions, where no intermediate forms occur (and I have met as yet with none such), 

 warrant specific separation. This is a mere matter of opinion ; but the non-occurrence 

 of the smaller form in the Dhoon is, I think, a matter of fact. I must have examined 

 fully 100 adults from the Dhoon. I have shot numbers there myself. Dr. King alone 

 sent me 40 specimens; Captain Hutton at least 20; Colonel Thelwall had a con- 

 siderable series. In none of these very numerous adults did the dimensions fall short 

 of those given above. Of course there were plenty of small young birds, but these 

 were to be recognised at once by the shape and size of casque. 



On the other hand I have more than 50 of the smaller form from Tenasserim, other 

 parts of Uurmah, &c, and in none of these do the dimensions exceed the maxima 

 given above for the smaller race. 



If adult birds of the same sex be compared, the difference in size is very great and 

 constant. The heaviest male of the smaller form that we met with weighed 1 75 lbs. 

 The only two Dehra Dhoon specimens (mules), whose weight I have recorded, weighed 



