V! 







i 



XXVI 



INTRODUCTION. 







Himalayas, Assam, Burmah, Arakan, Tenasserim, and Siam. How far they extend into China 

 or the interior of Burmah is unknown ; but it is most probable, as suggested by Wallace, that 

 they will be found wherever the great forests may reach in that direction. Throughout the 

 Indo-Malayan subregion they are pretty generally distributed, especially in the Malay peninsula 

 and the great islands adjacent to it. To pass rapidly in review the ranges of the various 

 species accepted as such in this Monograph, we find that in the Indian subregion we meet 



A. malabaricus at the base of the north-east Himalayas ; and the species extends eastward 

 along the chain into the Indo-Chinese subregion, throughout Nepal, Assam,~and Burmah, and 

 southward through British Burmah. It is not found in the Indian peninsula, that I am aware. 

 Another species, L. birostris, is distributed generally throughout India, not found in Assam, 

 and never to the eastward of the Bay of Bengal. A third, D. bicornis, has an even wider 

 distribution than either of the above, being met with in the hill-forests of all India, through British 

 Burmah, and in the Malay peninsula and Sumatra of the Indo-Malayan subregion. Three 

 other species are found in the Indian peninsula — A. coronatus, T. griseus, and T. gingalensis. 

 The first and last of these extend southward through the Ceylonese subregion. Passing to the 

 north-east into the Indo-Chinese subregion (besides A. malabaricus, already mentioned) we 

 find the south-eastern Himalayas are inhabited by the fine A. nepalensis, which ranges through 

 Assam and the Tenasserim provinces, where also A. tickelli has been procured. In Cochin 

 China A. eraterculus has been obtained ; but its exact dispersion is not known. Entering 

 now the Indo-Malayan division of the Oriental Region, we find the Malayan peninsula tenanted 

 by various species, the majority of which also inhabit the neighbouring islands. They are 



B. RHINOCEROS, R. VIGIL, A. MALAYANUS, A. COMATUS, R. UNDULATUS, and A. GALERITUS. All 



these are also natives of Sumatra and Borneo, except A. comatus, which is not found east of 

 Sumatra, and R. unlulatus, which is not met with beyond Java. The last-named island also 

 contains two species, B. sylvestris and A. convexus, the first peculiar to itself, the latter also 

 found, according to Schlegel, in Sumatra and Borneo. The last two islands also possess one 

 species not found elsewhere, C. corrttgatus. The remaining portions of the division that have 

 any species of this family are the Philippines and Narcondam Island. The first possesses nine 

 species, viz. H. planicornis, H. mikdanensis, H. semigaleatus, C. leucocephaltjs, P. panini, 

 P. Manilla, P. aeeinis, C. waldeni, and L. montani. Narcondam Island contains R. nar- 

 condami. Should, however, this eventually be considered only a local race of R. plicatus, 

 mentioned below, then it would extend the range of that species, as Narcondam Island lies 

 further to the westward than any recorded habitat of R. plicatus. 



In the Australian Region the Hornbills are confined entirely to Celebes and the Moluccan 

 and Papuan groups of the Austro-Malayan division, where but four species of the family are 

 met with, one, however, having a very extensive dispersion. Beginning with the most western 

 island of this division, save the one given above, it is found that Celebes possesses two species, 

 H. exarhata and C. cassidix; and neither of them is met with in any other locality. The 

 Moluccas contain R. plicatus, ranging from My sol, New Guinea, to the Solomon Islands, 

 these forming the extreme eastern limit that any species of this family reaches. 



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