492 NOVELTIES. 



Hitherto I have refrained from publishing the species, in 

 the hopes that I might be able to procure further specimens ; 

 but year after year has passed away ; and, though I have been 

 vigorously collecting this genus, no second specimen has yet 

 turned up, and I, therefore, now notice the species in the hopes 

 that, attention being drawn to it, some of my readers may be 

 able to secure additional specimens and throw some further 

 light upon the subject. 



The following are the dimensions of the bird taken from 

 the dry skin : — 



Length, 4 ft. 6 in.; tail, 8-0 ; wing, 27-0; bill at front from 

 margin of feathers to end of nail, 18'1 —Note that the frontal 

 feathers from a sharp point as, but more acute than, in onocro- 

 talus, and advance right to the corneous portion of the bill, 

 instead of, as in onocrotalus, about half an inch of bare skin 

 intervening between the last feather and the corneous portion 

 of the bill ; — tarsus, 5*25 ; mid toe and claw, 6'0. Schlegel 

 gives 17*0 as the maximum leugth of the bill of my specimen 

 of onocrotalus in the Leyden Museum — 17"5 is the greatest 

 length of my bill in my extremely large series of this species, 

 and this length is only attained in old males, whereas my 

 specimen of longirostris is a young bird that has not yet com- 

 pletely moulted into the white plumage of the adult. Then, 

 again, although the bill is longer it is actually narrower than in 

 onocrotalus. Onocrotalus, old male, with the bill 17*5 in length, 

 has the bill 1 "88 in width at the widest part, namely 3 or 4 

 inches from the point, whereas young longirostris, with the bill 

 1S-1, has the bill only 17 wide at the widest part. 



What makes it the more remarkable is that young male 

 onocrotalus in the same stage of plumage as this young longi- 

 rostris have the bills only 14 to 14*5 in length, so that, judging 

 from this analogy, the adult longirostris would have a bill 

 over 20 iuches in length. 



There is another peculiarity about the bill of this supposed 

 new species. In onocrotalus about, say, the middle of the bill, 

 the central rib or culmen rises as a rather flat convex above 

 the level of the rest of the upper mandible, but in longirostris 

 the rib is narrower ; it rises up nearly perpendicularly as a 

 bar for a quarter of an inch, and then the curved portion is 

 above this. 



The general color of the whole bird is dull white ; the pri- 

 maries, their greater coverts, the winglet and secondaries a 

 deep browu ; all the secondaries profusely silvered on their 

 outer webs ; the secondary greater coverts, the tertiaries, and 

 the longest scapulars are pale wood-brown, margined with 

 whity brown, and more or less silvered with grey ; a few of 



