1052. Anthracoceros coronatus.
The Malabar Pied Hornbill,
Buceros coronatus, Bodd. Tabl. Pl. Enl. p. 53 (1783). Buceros pica, Scop. Del. Flor. et Faun. Insub. ii, p. 87 (1786) ; Blyth., J. A. S. B. xvi, p. 993 ; xviii, p. 802; xxi, p. 352; id. Cat. p. 43; Tickell, Ibis, 1864, p. 179. Buceros malabaricus, varr. B et y, Lath. Ind. Orn. i, p. 143 (1790); Tickell, J. A. S. B. ii, p. 579; Jerdon, Madr. Jour. L. S. xi, p. 38; Blyth, J. A. S. B. xii, p, 993; Layard, A. M. N. H. (2) xiii, p. 260. Buceros violaceus, Shaw, Gen. Zool. viii, p. 19 (1811); Blyth, J. A. S. B. xii, p. 994. Hydrocissa coronata, Horsf. & M. Cat. ii, p. 588; Jerdon, B. I. i, p. 245; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 425; Ball, S. F. ii, p. 387; iii, p. 290 ; vii, p. 204; Hume, Cat. no. 141; Vidal, S. F. ix, p. 51; Butler, S. F. ix, p. 383 ; Davison, S. F. x, p. 352 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 105. Anthracoceros coronatus, Elliot, Mon. Buc. pl, xi; Legge, Birds Ceyl. p. 272; Parker, S. F. ix, p. 478; id. Ibis, 1886, p. 184 ; Ogilvie Grant, Cat. B. M. xvii, p. 362.
Dhan Churi, H.; Suliman Murghi, Dakhani; Bagma dunes, Beng.; Kuchla-Kha, Uriya; Wayera, Mahr.; Kannari, Concan ; Peshta ganda, Gond. ; Porowa Kaendetta, Atta Kaendetta, Cing. ; Errana-chundoo-kuravi, Tamil (Ceylon).
Coloration. Whole head and neck and upper parts throughout, including the wings above and the middle pair of tail-feathers, black glossed with dark green; lower breast, abdomen, lower tail-coverts, and all the tail-feathers except the middle pair white, as are broad tips of all quills except the first two primaries and the tertiaries, the bases of the primaries and part of the edge of the wing; under wing-coverts and axillaries black.
The casque is large and compressed, not convex at the sides. Bill and casque are waxen yellow, except the base of both mandibles and a large spot occupying about the anterior three fourths of the upper portion of the casque, which are black. In the male, but not in the female, the back of the casque is black. Irides orange-red in males, brown in females ; naked skin blackish round the eye in males, white in females ; bare skin on the throat flesh-coloured ; legs and feet grey.
Length about 3 feet; tail 12.5 inches ; wing 13.5 ; tarsus 2.5 ; bill from gape 7.5. Females rather less. As usual Ceylon birds are smaller than those of Orissa and Northern Malabar.
In the young the basal half of the outer tail-feathers is black, and there is at first no black on the casque, which is small. The nestling, according to Parker, has a brownish-white bar on the black feathers, except on the quills and rectrices.
Distribution. Ceylon, in the dry forests of the low country, woods at the base of the Western Ghats in Malabar as far north as Ratnagiri, and the forest-region of South-western Bengal, Orissa, Bastar, and the Eastern Central Provinces; not recorded elsewhere.
Habits, &c. The nidification has not been recorded by an eyewitness, but, as shown by Legge, Parker, and others, is undoubtedly similar to that of other Hornbills. This bird breeds in Ceylon from March to June and lays 2 to 4 eggs, measuring about 2 by 1.5.
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