on some Burmese Birds. 
455 
and found in pairs or parties of five or six, but frequently in 
considerable flocks. Its hoarse croak may be heard at a dis¬ 
tance of more than half a mile. At a place called Hmon ; 
on the Sittang river, in January L874, I found it very 
abundant and, for a wonder, very tame, so that I was able to 
secure seven fine specimens in the course of an hour by 
waiting under a large banyan tree, to which the birds were 
continually coming to feed on the ripe fruit. Some of the 
birds I shot had seven or eight banyan fruits clasped between 
the mandibles on either side. This tree was also the resort 
of numbers of Crocopus viridifrons , of which more than a 
dozen fell to my gun within the hour. 
At Tonghoo, towards the end of the hot weather (April), 
these birds pass over the cantonments in straggling flocks 
every morning and evening, going to and returning from 
their feeding-grounds. I have frequently seen forty or fifty 
of this species in a single flock. 
The iris of the male is lake-red, that of the female greyish 
white, and of an immature male brown. 
69. Hydrocissa albirostris. 
The Pied Hornbill is extremely common, but never seen 
in such large parties as the last species, with which it some¬ 
times, but rarely, associates. 
I kept a pair alive for many months at Tonghoo: they 
used to fly about the house and garden, and frequently would 
alight on the shoulder of a small native boy who was in the 
habit of feeding them. They were extremely partial to dead 
snakes. On one occasion I found them on the ground, each 
trying to swallow the same snake, one at the head and the 
other at the tail. The usual method of procedure, however, 
was to munch the snake until it was reduced to a suffi¬ 
ciently ragged and pulpy condition to admit of its being torn 
into small pieces and so swallowed. 
72. Rhyticeros subruficollis. 
Buceros subruficollis , Blyth, J. A. S. B. xii. p. 177. 
This is a local but, where found, abundant species. These 
birds are to be seen in the same manner as D. bicornis , but 
