MALAYAN ORNITHOLOGY. 129 
very little, if any, seasonal change. A female. which I dissected, 
had been feeding on berries. 
Buceros rurnoceros (Linn.). The Great Malay Hornbill. 
Fairly plentiful in the jungles of the interior, more especially 
in those parts were trees are of great size. 
I obtained it near Kwala Kangsa, Pérak, and, on several occa- 
sions, saw it high up among the enormous forest trees of the 
Gapis Pass, a most magnificent piece of tropical scenery, through 
which one had to travel on one’s way from Pérak to Larut and 
the sea-coast. 
I first came across these Hornbills within a mile or two of 
Kwala Kangsa. In my notes is :— | 
“28th January, 1877. Towards nightfall I hid myself in the 
jungle, near where I saw the boar last night, hoping he would 
revisit the pool; but he did not come, though I waited till after 
dark, and was much bothered by ants and mosquitoes. | 
While waiting, a flock of Hornbills, of the large Rhinoceros- 
horned specie, flew overhead. Their flight was strong and exceed- 
ingly noisy, every flap of their wings making a most peculiar 
sound, audible at a great distance; it was very like the “shish! 
shish! shish!” with which a railway-train starts: the birds flew 
in a V formation, not unlike, but more irregularly than, geese.” 
An officer of my regiment shot one of these Hornbills in 
the camp at Banda Bharu, near the mouth of the Pérak river: 
it was sitting on the fork of a tree, eating fruit of some kind, 
but rose on being approached. It was not rare in Malacca 
coilections, and, I am told, is often seen amongthe high trees on 
Penang hill; it can at once be distinguished from the other 
Bucerotida by the enormous red and yellow- horn attached to 
the upper surface of its beak. From Mr. W. E. Maxweutu, H. 
M. Assistant Resident of Lirut, I hear that the Malays havea 
strange legend connected with one of the large Hornbills; but 
which species, I was not able to find ont. It is as follows:— 
“A Malay, in order to be revenged on his mother-in-law (why, 
the legend does not relate), shouldered his axe and made his 
way to the poor woman’s house and began to cut through the 
posts which supported it. After a few steady chops, the whole 
