Mr. P. L. Sclater on the American Barbets. 183 



former authorities in considering the Barbets as true Scausorials, 

 I cannot join with Mr. G. R. Gray in arranging them as a sub- 

 family of the Woodpeckers {Picida). They appear to me to 

 have every claim to occupy a distinct station, and to be ranged 

 as an independent family near the Toucans {Ramphastidce), to 

 which latter group one of the genera {Tetrogonops) shows very 

 considerable rapprochement. 



While the Woodpeckers are spi'ead throughout the New World 

 and over the whole of the Old World, except the Australian 

 region, the Barbets are strictly confined to the tropics of both 

 hemispheres. In Asia, Africa, and America, however, they 

 are represented by different genera ; and when their full history 

 and peculiarities are better known, it is not improbable that 

 the Barbets of the eastern and western hemispheres may be 

 separable into two subfamilies. The known genera of the 

 CapitoniddR, geographically arranged, are as follows : — 



America. Africa. Asia. 



Capita. Pogonorhijnchus^. Megalama. 



Tetragonops. Gymnohucco. Psilopogon. 



Barbutula. Megalorliijnchus. 



Trachyphonus. 



Of these three regions the Neotropical is the poorest in num- 

 ber of species, though, in brilliancy of colouring and in singularity 

 of form (looking to Tetragonops), the South- American Barbets 

 are perhaps the most remarkable of the family. 



The Barbets occupy but a limited area in South America com- 

 pared with many other of its peculiar families. Not one of them 

 has yet been found to the north of the Isthmus of Panama, or 

 south of the basin of the Amazon, and the species are chiefly 

 confined to the countries traversed by the upper branches of this 

 river, and to the mountain-valleys of New Granada, Ecuador, and 

 Peru. We have few details recorded concerning their habits, 

 but they are said to be seen generally in the fruit-trees, feeding on 

 the fruit, and hopping from branch to branch like the Toucans f. 



* This term, proposed by Van der Hoeven in 1833 (Handb. d. Zool. ii. 

 p. 446), has precedence over Leemodon, generally ado])ted for this genus, 

 t Interesting particulars concerning the habits of the Asiatic CapitonidcE 



