ANORRHINUS LEUCOLOPHUS. 



FANTEE WHITE-CRESTED HOENBUL 



Berenicornis albo-cristatus, Sharpe, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1871) p. 604. sp. 7. 

 Berenicornis kucolophus, Sharpe, Zool. Rec. (1873) p. 54. 



Hab. Fantee (Sharpe). 



In his list of the Birds of Cameroons, published in the ' Proceedings' of the Zoological Society, 

 as above cited, Mr. Sharpe calls attention to the difference between specimens of this Hornbill 

 from Fantee and the Gaboon. He states :— " I must remark that all the specimens received from 

 Eantee differ conspicuously in being much smaller, and in having the wing scarcely tipped with 

 white. The bill also is very different, being much smaller in the Eantee bird. Although I have 

 a good series of these Hornbills, I must wait for further evidence before describing the Eantee 

 bird as new, as Cassin's original type came from Sierra Leone, and agrees with the Gaboon bird, 

 and not with that from Eantee, as one would expect." In the ' Zoological Kecord ' for 1871, he 

 remarks in a footnote, " I have since seen many specimens from Eantee, and find the character 

 constant. The bird from this locality must be separated as B. leucolophus." The Eantee birds 

 certainly do vary both in size and shape of bill, as well as in the colour of the plumage, as pointed 

 out by Mr. Sharpe ; but the great difficulty that exists against its being deemed distinct from the 

 albocristatus of Cassin, is its geographical distribution. The species just named extends from 

 Sierra Leone to the Gaboon. Of this dispersion there can hardly be any doubt, as the type speci- 

 men came from Sierra Leone, it was procured by Pel on the Rio Boutry in Ashantee, and by Du 

 Chaillu at the Gaboon. Now it appears strange that nearly in the centre of this range a closely 

 allied but distinct species should exist. I have never seen any of the albocristatus from Eantee ; 

 but that does not prove that it is not also found there with the leucolophus style. It is possible 

 that Mr. Sharpe's bird is simply a local race of the widely distributed albocristatus. 



Bill black, with a triangular yellow spot near the base of the maxilla. A keel-shaped casque 

 rises above the maxilla at its base, runs for nearly its entire length, and terminates at a right angle 

 to the culmen. Head and occiput covered by a very long loose crest ; and these, together with the 

 neck, are white, with the shafts of the feathers and a spot on their tips black. Entire rest of body 

 black. Wings black with a green gloss. Tail cuneate (median feathers very long), black, glossed 

 with green and tipped with white. Eeet and tarsi black. 



Total length 26 inches, wing 9, tail 17, bill 3^, tarsus If. 



The specimens described and figured were in Mr. Sharpe's collection. 



