BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 113 



[This species usually occurs in parties varying from half-a- 

 dozen to twenty or more, and on one occasion I saw a flock of 

 33 flying over the town of Moulmein. This and the preceding 

 species are remarkably strong on the wing, and morning and 

 evening, where they occur, numbers may be seen flving far over- 

 head, sometimes at such a height that they look not bigger than 

 crows. The strokes of their wings are accompanied by a 

 peculiar metallic or resonant swish which can be heard at 

 an incredible distance. One is often made aware of these birds 

 flying far overhead by the sound of their wings, and on looking 

 up, the birds are seen at such an immense height as to be only 

 just distinguishable. While flying they give utterance occasion- 

 ally to a short hoarse bark ; this bark they also utter when 

 seated or feeding. 



They are entirely frugivorous, and appear occasionally to o- 

 long distances to feed. rt 



During the day they usually rest on the large branches of the 

 highest forest trees, but even then are not very easily approached. 

 A young male of this species that I had tame, and which 

 was said to be nine months' old when I obtained it, although it 

 had the head and neck colored as in the adult male, had the gular 

 skm blue like the adult female. This young bird used always 

 to catch any morsel of plantain or other fruit thrown to it 

 between the points of its bill, toss it up in the air, and catch it in 

 its mouth. It did not, however, immediately swallow it ; on the 

 contrary it would cram the upper part of the throat as full as 

 possible with food, and then sitting quite still would, from time 

 to time, press its pouch against its breast so as to force one 

 morsel up into the mouth ; it would then throw its head back 

 and swallow that particular morsel. A few minutes afterwards 

 it would so dispose of another piece, and so on, until, in the 

 course of half an hour or so, it had swallowed the whole meal. 

 It never drank or seemed to want to drink though it sat for 

 hours, at a time, on the gunwale of the low boat close to the 

 water : when it slept it slouched its body, so that its chest 

 rested on its perch, dropped its wings slightly, and tucked its 

 head under one of them. It did not, as has been asserted in the 

 case of some Hornbills, sleep with its tail over its back ; on the 

 contrary when asleep its tail hung down almost perpendicu- 

 larly.— W. D.] 



In this species, as in undulatus, ruficollis, and narcondami, the 

 casque merely consists of a broad obtusely convex plate with 

 numerous transverse, laterally obliquely-sloping ridges and 

 furrows, covering the basal two-fifths to nearly one-half of the 

 culmen. 



In the youngest bird there is no trace of this plication 

 on the basal portion of the culmen. After one year of age 



15 



