Descriptive List of the Common Birds 



It is a winter visitor to the plains of India, 

 but can scarcely be called a common bird. 



The Barbets, 113 and 114 



Barbets are tree-haunting birds with thick 

 bills. They have loud monotonous calls of 

 two or three notes, which they repeat eternally. 

 They nest in holes in trees, which they ex- 

 cavate with their thick stout bills, in wood- 

 pecker fashion. The entrance to the nest is 

 a perfectly circular hole, like that leading to a 

 woodpecker's nest, but considerably smaller. 

 Barbets, when calling, move the head, so that 

 it is not easy to locate the bird from its call. 



113. Thereiceryx zeylonicus : The Common 

 Green Barbet. (F. 1008), (J. 193), (III.) 



A rich leaf -green bird, with a brownish head 

 and a large brown patch round the eye devoid 

 of feathers. 



During the latter part of the cold weather 

 and the early part of the hot weather it makes 

 the hagh where it occurs resound with its loud, 

 penetrating, monotonous kutur, kutur, kutur. 

 The bird starts by uttering a harsh laugh — 

 tur-r-r-r — this is followed by a long succession 

 of kutur s. 



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