462 NOTES ON THE NIDIFICATION OF SOME HORNBILLS. 



color depends, I think, more on the nature of the wood of the 

 tree chosen for the nest, and the material used in the plaster- 

 ing, which, by the way, is well laid on inside as well as round 

 the opening to the hollow, than upon the length of time the 

 eggs have been laid ; for two eggs out of the lot I procured 

 had the chicks almost ready to break through, and are yet 

 only of a dull white, but slightly stained, while again two 

 other eggs are of the color of iron rust all over, and these, 

 though undoubtedly hard-set, were still easily cleared, but they 

 were taken out of a hollow in a Thingau tree, the wood of 

 which gives off a rusty stain. 



All the eggs have a perceptible gloss, except one. Some 

 slight, one a perfectly fresh egg is comparatively very glossy. 

 The exceptional non-glossy egg is rough, almost like sand-paper 

 to the touch. All are very finely pitted over their whole 

 surface, and some have little raised tubercles or lumps chiefly 

 in a zone round the centre. In shape some are long and 

 narrow and much pointed at one end — some short and globular. 

 The largest eggs were those found singly, and of these one 

 measures 2-75''xl'98'' — the smallest taken measuring 

 2-40" 5^ 1-93"; but the average of twelve is 2-62"X 1'88''. It 

 is remarkable that even the chick in the egg has a well-marked 

 protuberance above the upper mandible — the rudiment, it would 

 seem, of the future casque. 



142.— Hydrocissa albirostris, Shaw. 



I was rather too early for the eggs of this species. Out of 

 many nests examined only two contained eggs, and these two 

 only one each. What the full complement may be I am igno- 

 rant. Myat-jo says four — possibly ; but once before I took the 

 eggs of this species, and that was later on in March, and then 

 there were only two, but that was up in the northern jungles near 

 Hpapoon, where possibly they breed later. I have described 

 the nest and eggs before {vide S. F., Vol. V, p. 84), so have 

 nothing to add except that the present eggs were found in 

 hollows in Kanyin trees [Dipterocarpus alatus) standing dead, 

 and partially burnt in an old cultivation clearing or hponzoli. 

 One nest must have been fully at the height of one hundred 

 feet above the ground — the other not half that. The eggs 

 measure 2-04">cl-37''' and 1-84'^ x 1-39" respectively. 



144 5«s.-~ Ocyceros tickelli, Blyth. 



I have already detailed above the finding of the nest of this 

 species. Visiting it later on I was able to secure the female, and 

 no less than five eggs, all fresh. This, I fancy, must be the full 



