28G Description of a new species of Hornbill. [No. 4. 



by Mr. Blyth that they differ. The species now under review is 

 therefore new to science. 



The district of Amherst (Tenasserim provinces) is traversed for its 

 whole length, north and south, by a continuation of the Yoma-doung 

 or south-eastern Himalaya. This range continues southward through 

 Tavoy and Mergui, and forms finally the backbone of the Malayan 

 peninsula. And along these mountains birds supposed to be pecu- 

 liar to the peninsula and the Straits on the one side, and restricted 

 to Nepal and the Morung and Teraii on the other, are frequently 

 met with. The range (or ranges) in Amherst are about forty miles 

 in breadth (though the mountainous portion of the province seems to 

 dilate as extending southward), and the ridges are for the most part 

 excessively steep, and buried in forests : but rising to more scantily 

 clothed peaks of 7 or 8000 feet elevation. On the lower skirting 

 hills, but especially on the plains at their feet, the soil, watered by 

 numerous brooks and streams, is exceedingly rich, and nourishes 

 trees of prodigious dimensions. The "Thengan" {Hopea tree, apud 

 Judson), " Toung-bing," and " Kathy-kha" (trees used by the 

 Talyns for making boats of upwards of 50 tons burden), rise to 150 

 ft. before producing a branch, their summits attaining a height of 230 

 feet and upwards ; and it is on these giants of the forest that this 

 species of Hornbill reposes and feeds, never being met with in 

 jungle where the trees are of an ordinary size. I met with these 

 birds from the plains up to an elevation of 3,500 or 4,000 ft. above 

 the sea, but not beyond ; and they appeared commonest on the 

 easterly skirts of the range, keeping together in pairs or small 

 parties of five and six, incessantly calling to each other in loud 

 plaintive screams " whe-wheyo, whe-wheyo" and when feeding, keep- 

 ing up a low murmuring cackle like Parrots. Their flight is smooth 

 and regular like that of Buceeos pusaean, not in alternate flaps 

 and sails like B. cavatus, or albieosteis, or bieosteis. And it is 

 performed at great elevations especially when they cross from top to 

 top of the mountains. Keeping ever thus at immense heights, and 

 being withal as quick-sighted and wary as the rest of the genus, it 

 may be pronounced one of the most difficult birds in the world to be 

 procured with a gun. It is, therefore, no matter of wonder, that 

 although large collections of birds have been made in the Tenas- 



