1843.]' Mr. BlytKs Report for December Meeting, 1842. 989 



the rest being blackish. Cameli's specimen is described to have had 

 the primaries fulvous. This is accordingly a somewhat variable species, 

 subject to have the wings more or less fulvous or fulvous-white, in- 

 stead of brown-black: au reste, the Society's specimen has the upper- 

 parts of a dusky, greenish olive-brown ; the face to beyond the 

 eyes, and the crown immediately behind the casque, black; belly 

 also black ; the remainder of the head and the entire neck deep 

 ferruginous; thighs pale ferruginous; and tail wholly fulvous-white: 

 bill and casque dull coral-red, the terminal half of the former dark 

 and livid, and a slight admixture of this upon the casque. Length 

 nearly three feet, of wing sixteen inches, and tail thirteen inches ; 

 bill to gape six inches, and casque five inches, the latter produced 

 backward far over the crown ; the shape of it is inflated, and flattened 

 above, narrowing to a point anteriorly, which however doe3 not pro- 

 trude forward, the greatest breadth being nearly two inches, and there 

 are no transverse grooves either upon the casque or on the bill itself. 



The figure cited of this species is rude (the feet not being repre- 

 sented as syndactyly), but decisive as regards the specific characters ; 

 the upper-parts being coloured brownish-black, the beily black as in 

 the Society's specimen, and the thighs and vent of the same fulvous- 

 white as the primaries of the latter. But the description in the Diet. 

 Class, varies in several particulars, representing the upper-parts to be 

 black, but the under-parts with the tail-feathers, fulvous-white; upper 

 mandible yellow, red at its point, and surmounted by a casque rounded 

 laterally, much produced backward, and creuse en gouttiere ouverte 

 pa?' devant; hence the suggestion of M. Drapiez that this species may 

 be B. cavatus, but there is no tendency to such a structure apparent 

 in the Society's specimen, which however may be from comparative 

 youth. The total length is given as three feet (French), and that of the 

 bill seven inches. The females and young are stated to be wholly 

 black, which is improbable as concerns the tail. 



The same sexual disparity of plumage occurs in several allied 

 species, whereof the males only are more or less marked with rufous; 

 and both sexes are characterized by having a naked and brightly 

 coloured, inflatable, gular skin. At the head of these may be placed — 



2. B. Nipalensis, Hodgson, As. Res. XVIII, pt. 1, 178, — the female, 

 with a coloured figure of this sex: the male having the plumage of 

 the entire head, neck, and breast, bright ferruginous, and that of the 



6 p 



