ALEXANDER THE COPPERSMITH 247 



The sparrow, when seen side by side with the copper- 

 smith, looks almost a gentleman ! The coppersmith is 

 the coarsest bird of my acquaintance, with the excep- 

 tion of the vulture. The coarseness of this latter, how- 

 ever, is of a different type; it is that of the despised 

 outcast, while that of the coppersmith is the coarseness 

 of a Whitechapel prize-fighter. 



The coppersmith belongs to the barbet family. This 

 is represented in India by seventeen species. The 

 whole clan resemble one another very closely in habits. 

 All live almost entirely on fruit. All have a loud, 

 monotonous note. All are essentially tree-hunting 

 birds. I do not remember ever having seen a barbet 

 sitting on the ground. All nest in holes in trees. 



The flight of every member of the family is un- 

 dulating. The barbets are thus what men of science 

 call a well-marked natural family. When you have 

 once seen one, you cannot mistake its relations, nor 

 confuse them with any other birds. The woodpeckers 

 are perhaps their nearest relatives. 



Coppersmiths nest only once in the year, about 

 March in most parts of India, but earlier in Madras. 

 The bird excavates a hole in a tree in much the same 

 way as a woodpecker does. The coppersmith's beak, 

 however, is not so efficient a pick-axe as that of its 

 more highly specialized cousin. For this reason barbets 

 usually select a place in a tree where the ants have 

 been at work, and the wood is, in consequence, begin- 

 ning to decay. When once the site has been decided 

 upon, the excavation of the nest does not take long. 

 A couple of days usually suffice. 



