GLEANINGS 
IN 
SCIENCE. 
No. 9 September, 1829. 
I.— Ora a New Species of Buceros. — By H. Hodgson, Esq. B. C. S. 
[From the 17th vol. As. Res. Ft. 1.] 
Order Insessores ; Tribe Conirostres ; Family Bucerid® ; Genus Buceros, Species 
new ; Buceros Nipdlensis, Dhanesa, Ind. 
This remarkable and very large species, which I have the advantage of contem- 
plating at leisure in a live specimen, measures, from the point of one wing to that of 
the other, four feet five inches ; and from the tip of the beak to the extremity of the 
tail, three feet six inches, whereof the beak is eight inches, and the tail, one foot 
five inches. Its body, in size, exceeds that of the largest raven, and is lank and 
uncompact, having a rather long and very flexible neck slightly ruffed, a bill and 
tail of extreme length ; high-shouldered powerful wings, and short strong legs. 
The colour may in general terms be said to be black, with a white-pointed tail, 
and white patch on the wings : the figure, upon the whole, and in the bird’s most 
accustomed attitudes, is clumsy and heavy. 
Let me now attempt a more particular description, beginning with the specific 
dimensions, which are as follows : 
fl- 
irt. 
5 
Wing to wing, . . . . 4 
Beak to tail, . . . . 3 6 
Tail, .. .. 1 5 
Bill, length of, .. ..0 8 
Ditto, depth or height of, . . 0 3J 
Legs, .. .. 0 10 
Whereof, thighs to the knee,. . 0 5 
Tarsi, to ball of foot, . . 0 Z| 
Central toe and claw, . . 0 2} 
The skinned carcase measures, from first to last joint of neck, eight inches ;from 
last joint of the neck to end of rump, nine inches. 
The bill, which is large even for this genus, is nearly straight from the gape to 
the tip, but still having, upon the whole, a slight incurvation, which is most sensi- 
ble along the ridge of the upper mandible, and especially towards the base of it, 
where the arch is conspicuous, but without any abruptness. The substance of the 
hill is perfectly hard and apparently solid, not “ cellular,” or “ hollow*,” unless in 
a manner traceable only by dissection, which I do not pretend to affirm or deny. 
The latter compression is great, so great as to render the edges above and below 
somewhat sharp, to destroy almost the convexity of the sides, and to leave hardly 
any breadth to the bill, except at the base, where it is a little thickened, but still 
touch less broad than high. The upper mandible is strengthened by six large pro- 
minent ribs, running obliquely down nearly the whole breadth of it, and extending 
lengthwise from the base beyond the centre. These ribs present their prominence 
edgewise to the surface of the bill, giving it there an undulatory form : elsewhere, 
five surface is perfectly smooth. The inner margins of the bill are, by nature, unit- 
ed and entire, but with their edges cut out, and interlocked towards the base, and so 
they continue to be in the oldest birds. Towards the tip, the inner margins are, 
in old birds, much and irregularly broken, and separated by hard use ; and the ridge 
also is broken by similar means. 
* The words thus indicated as quotations, refer to the generic character. 
