VISCOUNT WALDEN ON THE BIEDS OE CELEBES. 51 



appears to become absorbed, and to retreat as the bird increases in age ; or, as the 

 anterior edge becomes more and more perpendicular to the culmen, it perhaps wears 

 off, or is broken off. This can be traced in one example— the indent or hollow from 

 which the fore part of the casque sprung, and in which it was attached to the culmen, 

 a groove shaped like a V, three quarters of an inch long, not being filled up. 



Buceros sulcatus, Temm., from the Philippines, and B. corrugatus, Temm., from 

 Borneo, belong to the same genus. 



CUCULIMl. 



Scythe opin^e. 

 Scttheops, Latham. 

 59. Scytheops nov^e-hollandle, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 141, " Nova Hollandia" (1790); 

 Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Cuculi, p. 36 ; Temm. PI. Col. 290. 

 Cuculus prcesagus, Reinw. MS., ex Celebes. 



Hab. Menado, Macassar (mus. nostr.) ; Kema (Forsten) ; Ceram, north coast (Mus. 

 Lugd.) ; Ceram, south coast, adult males, April (Hoedt) ; Obi-major, adult male, 29th 

 of June, Batchian, adult male and female, end of June, a male, 8th of September 

 (Bernstein); Flores (Wallace); New South Wales, between October and January 

 (Gould); Cape York (mus. nostr.). 



Two individuals from the vicinity of Menado are, in their colouring and markings, 

 almost identical with an example from Cape York. The dimensions of the wing and 

 tail also agree. But the bill of the Menado male, measured from the nostril, is full 

 two inches and three quarters in length, and that of the female two and five eighths, 

 whereas that of the Cape-York bird is only two inches and a quarter. In form the 

 bill of the Celebean bird differs from that of the Cape- York example. In the latter 

 the culmen is rounded, smooth, and broad, and there is only one lateral channel or 

 groove present. This starts from above the nostril, and runs in a line more or less 

 parallel with the culmen. In the Menado male the culmen, on leaving the forehead, 

 forms a distinct narrow ridge ; on each side of it is a depression or shallow valley, 

 formed and bounded by a second ridge, below which again is the channel observable in 

 the Cape-York bird. In the bill of the Menado female the culmen is sharper and still 

 more clearly defined; and the lateral channels, while being deeper, are prolonged 

 nearly to the apex of the maxilla 1 . The type of structure is essentially that of the 

 bill in some species of the Bucerotidee. 



We know nothing of this form out of Australia. In that country it is migratory. 

 Its geograpical distribution in the archipelago, as at present known, is anomalous ; for 

 it occurs in Flores, and is not recorded from Lombock or Timor. It has been found in 

 Batchian, but not in Gilolo ; in Ceram, but not in Bourou. 



1 A Macassar example, since obtained, presents a similar structure. 



K2 



