998 Mr. Bhjth's Report for December Meeting, 1842. [No. 143. 



The only remaining Indian Hornbill is 



6. B. Gingalensis, Shaw ; B. Bengalensis, Gray, in Griffith's work, 

 though extremely doubtful as even occurring in Bengal. Size of B. 

 Ginginianus, the beak large but without a casque (vide figure in 

 Griffith's work, VII, pi. to p. 435) : " the colour of the upper part of 

 the head and the back is blackish brown, with a cast of bluish-grey, 

 the smaller coverts edged with black, marking out that part of the 

 plumage into so many scale-like divisions: the face and under-parts 

 are greyish-white, deeper on the belly and thighs: the two middle 

 tail-feathers are bluish-grey, and the rest somewhat deeply tipped 

 with white." Originally described from Ceylon, and also frequents 

 lofty jungle on the Malabar coast. The Society possess no speci- 

 men. 



Halcyon Smyrnensis, var. ? albogularis, Nobis. Differs from H. 

 Smyrnensis in having the white of the under-parts confined to the 

 throat, and the black wing-patch extends over the entire coverts, 

 excepting those of the primaries and the winglet, and also replaces the 

 rufous on the shoulder of the wing. Habitat uncertain. Among a 

 great number of Indian specimens of H. Smyrnensis, I have found no 

 variation whatever, the plumage being exactly as described by Mr. 

 Strickland in An, and Mag. Nat. Hist., August, 1842, p. 443, this 

 description having been drawn up from a Syrian specimen: and I 

 may remark that the young bird, in its first plumage, is marked and 

 coloured precisely as in the adult, only its hues are not so bright, and 

 the bill is dusky above with a yellow tip. 



Picus, subgenus Gecinus, Boie; the Green Woodpecker group, 

 exemplified by P. viridis and P. canus of Europe, specimens of both 

 of which are in the Society's museum, the latter species received from 

 Norway. This subgeneric form, peculiar to the old continent, has 

 numerous representatives in India and the neighbouring countries. 

 Two species are figured in Gould's Century of Himalayan birds, 

 but in disadvantageous contrast to the later figures by that natural- 

 ist ; and there are others nearly allied and hitherto confounded with 

 them. 



1. P. squamatus, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 8; Gould's Century, pi. 

 XLVIII: P. dimidiatus (?), apud Hardwicke and Gray, not of 

 Temminck and Wagler. Length thirteen inches and upwards, of 



