1000 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Aug. 



fined in their distribution to India proper, the second only extending its 

 range to Bengal ; while the third has not elsewhere been observed than in 

 Malabar and Ceylon. The great B. cavatus is alone common to both sides 

 of the Bay of Bengal ; continuing its range southward to Sumatra (where 

 noticed by Raffles), if not further. Along the sub-Himalayan region, 

 in Nepal, Bengal, Assam, Sylhet, Arracan, and the Tenasserim provinces, 

 B. pica is replaced by B. albirostris : and in the S. E. Himalaya, the range 

 of the great B. nipalensis commences, and extends eastward at least to 

 Munneepore. There, most probably, and certainly in the vicinity of Cherra 

 Poonjee, B pusaran occurs, and ranges southward through all the intervening 

 countries to the Malayan peninsula and Sumatra ; and in Arracan and 

 Tenasserim there is also the B. plicatus. The only species I have seen from 

 the last named territories are B. cavatus, B. albirostris, B. pusaran, and B. 

 jjlicatus. In the Malayan peninsula the species are particularly numerous : 

 besides B. cavatus and B. pusaran, there are the remarkable B. galeatus, 

 the otherwise remarkable B. rhinoceros, and B. intermedins, B. bicolor, B. 

 malayanus, B. carinatus, and B. comatus, — all in the Society's museum ; 

 and also, it would seem, the B. corrugatus, Tern. (v. rugosus, Begbie, 

 described in Ann. Mag. N. H. 1846, p. 404.*) With the last named I am 

 unacquainted ; nor have I much information respecting the distribution of 

 these birds in the islands. 



The most anomalous species of this great genus known to me, are the 

 long-legged B. abyssinicus (or Abba Gumba of Bruce), upon which M. Lesson 

 founds his ill-constructed hybrid name Bucorvus, and the Malayan B. 

 galeatus. The only further dismemberments noticed in the second edition 

 of Mr. G. R. Gray's ' List of the Genera of Birds,' are Toccus, Lesson, founded 

 on B. erythrorhynchos, Brisson, and Euryceros, Lesson, founded on a species 

 named Prevostii by that naturalist. A good group is however formed by the 

 species with well developed casque, the hindmost portion of which rises 

 high above the coronal feathers ; as typified by B. cavatus, B. rhinoceros, 

 B. hydrocorax, and B. pica. Another good group consists of those with 

 wreathed casque, naked throat, and dissimilar plumage in the sexes ; as 

 typified by B. cassidix and B. ruficollis : B. nipalensis ranging here as an 

 aberrant species. And the rest, while according throughout in having the 



* " This species is 2\ ft. long. Body, wings, and tail, black, with the exception of the 

 cheeks, shoulders, and throat, which are dirty white, mixed with cinereous. One-third of 

 the tail from the tip smoky-white ; helmet and pouch-like protuberance under the throat 

 crimson, the former furrowed with three deep indentations. Upper mandible yellowish- 

 brown, inclining to white at the tip : the basal half of the lower mandible ochraceous 

 and transversely caniculate ; remainder of the mandible dirty white." — Begbie. 



