THE SOLID-BILLED HORNBILL. 
89 
Genus EHINOPLAX, Gloger. 
477. EHINOPLAX VIGIL. 
THE SOLID-BILLED HORNBILL. 
Buceros vigil, J. R. Forst. Ind. Zool. p. 40. Buceros scutatus, Bodd. Tail. PI. 
EnL p. 55. Buceros galeatus, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 360. Rhinoplax scuta- 
tus, Salvad. Ucc. Born, p. 88. Rhinoplax vigil, Elliot, Man. Bucer. pi. x. ; 
Hume 8^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 115 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 86. 
Description. — Male. Forehead^ crown and nape with a short occipital 
crest dark brown ; ear-coverts and scattered feathers on the sides of the 
head brown edged with rufous ; remainder of the head^ all the neck and a 
considerable portion of the back bare and red ; the upper plumage, wings 
and breast brown ; the longer upper tail-coverts white ; primaries and most 
of the secondaries tipped with white; abdomen, sides of the body, vent 
and under tail-coverts white ; central tail-feathers grey, the others white^ 
the whole with a broad black band near their ends. 
The female does not appear to differ from the male except in having a 
shorter tail. 
The whole of the sides, the top of the casque and the sides of both upper 
and lower mandible as far as the casque extends are deep crimson ; the 
truncated front of the casque and the whole of the upper mandible beyond 
the casque are a bright orange-yellow irides dark litharge-red ; 
legs and feet dirty orange-brown ; skin of eyelids the same dirty red as the 
other bare portions. {Davison.) 
Length of male to end of ordinary tail-feathers 43*5 inches ; tail to end 
of ordinary tail-feathers 18 ; wing 19*25 ; tarsus 3 ; bill from gape straight 
to point 6*75 ; length of casque along its upper ridge 3; height of upper 
mandible and casque 3*5. (Davison.) 
This remarkable form differs from all others in having a short rounded 
casque quite solid throughout instead of hollow, and in having the central 
pair of tail-feathers produced a considerable distance, twelve to eighteen 
inches_, beyond the next pair. It has the head, neck and a considerable 
portion of the back naked and of a red colour, and altogether it is, as 
Mr. Hume aptly calls it, a perfect nightmare of a bird. 
The Solid-billed Hornbill has been observed in the extreme south of 
Tenasserim at Bankasoon, where Mr. Davison obtained one specimen and 
my men another. 
It extends down the Malay peninsula, and occurs in Sumatra and 
Borneo. 
Mr. Davison is probably the only naturalist who has observed this bird 
in a state of nature. He says : — The birds are excessively shy and rare. 
