ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAK. 51 



140.— -Dichoceros cavatus, Shaio. 



Near Noongzai-ban, the low westernmost ridge of the West- 

 ern hills, I first ^ heard the unmistakable call of the great 

 Hornbill, but I neither saw nor shot it there. Of course they 

 do not occur in the basin ; they too are forest birds, but in the 

 Eastern hills again I repeatedly heard them, and at Machi 

 the Nagas brought in a fine male alive hut minus the tail. 

 It had been caught in a squirrel trap, but what they had done 

 with the tail I could not find out. , I released the captive, and 

 he flew off down the slope better than I expected, since it was 

 not easy to understand how without his long tail he could 

 balance his huge head. Lastly, on my return journey about a 

 mile before reaching the Jhiri, I saw a pair perched near the 

 top of a high dead tree. 



I have received this species from N.-E. Cachar, and Godwin- 

 Austen speaks, though doubtfully, of their occurrence near 

 Tellizo peak in the Naga hills, but I have not as yet any record 

 of its occurrence ( though it probably does occur there) in any 

 part of the Assam valley, not even in the Dibrugarh district, 

 whence I have so many species. 



[They are not very rare in Dibrugarh. In the centre of the 

 sheet of tea which formed my garden were a couple of huge Sappa 

 {Michelia sip.) trees, and one afternoon, while passing them, one 

 of these birds flew towards me from the very topmost branches 

 of one of these trees. Having only snipe shot I hesitated 

 a bit, but recollecting that " nothing venture nothing win, " 

 I fired, and down came a fine male. Measurements were : — 

 Length, 46-50 ; expanse, 64-0 ; tail, 17-20; wing, 18-50 ; tarsus, 

 3-0 ; bill from gape, 7-40 ; weight, 5-25. Legs and feet dingy 

 glaucous green ; irides reddish brown ; claws horny brown ; 

 lower mandible ivory white ; base below red ; sides of the lower 

 mandible at base black, upper mandible yellow, tinged reddish ; 

 casque red above, yellow at sides, and black in front. Subse- 

 quently I continually observed these birds flying overhead, 

 sometimes in small parties of five or six, but never managed to 

 secure another specimen. Ass. " Hivang."—J. R. C] 



It is generally distributed throughout British Burmah in 

 suitable localities, but is specially abundant in the Arakan 

 hills. 



142.— Hydrocissa albirostris, Shaw. 



This species was very abundant in the low-lying forest be- 

 tween Noongzai-ban and the Jhiri, but I never saw it again 

 after crossing that ridge, nor do I believe that it occurs further 

 east in Manipur. 



