88 CAPITONIDiE. 



Bill pale orange-brown ; iris red-brown ; bare orbital skin dull' 

 orange ; legs light yellowish brown (Jerdon). 



Length 10-5 ; tail 3-2 ; wing 4'7 ; tarsus 1-25 ; bill from gape 1-8. 

 Ceylon and Tranvancore birds run smaller, wing about 4*4. 



Distribution. Almost throughout India and Ceylon. Common 

 at the base of the Western Himalayas in the Dehra Dun and 

 Eohilcund Terai, throughout the North-west Provinces and the 

 wooded parts of Central India, Eastern Guzerat, the Central 

 Provinces, and South-western Bengal, the forest-tracts between the 

 Ganges and Godavari, some of the better wooded regions of the 

 Madras Presidency, and near the Malabar coast ; wanting in the 

 Punjab and Sind, in Eajputana except around Mount Abu, in 

 Lower Bengal, and, I believe, in the open parts of the Deccan and 

 Carnatic. In Ceylon this Barbet inhabits most of the low country 

 and the lower hills, except close to the sea-shore, or in dense damp 

 forest. 



As in so many other cases, the Southern bird from Ceylon 

 and Travancore is rather smaller and darker. This is typical 

 T. zeylonicus. The North Indian bird canicejis is larger and slightly 

 paler. The intermediate form from the Bombay coast has been 

 separated as inomata. I can discover no constant distinction : 

 some freshly moulted northern forms are quite as dark in colour 

 as Ceylonese, and in the British Museum collection there is a 

 female Ceylon skin with the wing 4-6 long, and a female Allahabad 

 specimen with the wing measuring 4*5, both being adult and 

 thoroughly good specimens. 



Habits, Sfc. Like other Indian Barbets, this species lives chiefly 

 upon fruit and seeds, and especially on the figs of the banyan 

 and other kinds of Ficus. It is said, however, occasionally though 

 rarely to eat insects, and Layard has related how an individual, 

 kept in captivity, killed and swallowed small birds (Munias), its 

 fellow-captives. The best known characteristic of this Barbet is its 

 loud dissyllabic call, which Jerdon represents as hiitiir, hotur Tcotur, 

 preceded by a harsh sort of laugh ; this call is heard from January 

 or February till June. Each bird continues to call for some time, 

 frequently even on moonlight nights. The flight is strong but 

 heavy and somewhat undulating. In Northern India the breeding- 

 season is chiefly in March and April ; 3 or 4 eggs are laid in a hole 

 hollowed by the bird itself in a tree. The eggs are dull white,- 

 slightly glossy, and measure about 1'21 by "88. 



1009. Thereiceryx lineatus. The Limated Barbet. 



Capito lineatus, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. cfHist. Nat. iv, p. 500 (1816). 

 Megakima lineata, Dlyth, Cat. p. 66 ; Horsf. ^- M. Cat. ii, p. 636 ; 



Jerdon, B. I. i, p. 309. 

 Megalaima hodgsoni, Bonap. Consp. Av. i, p. 144 (1850j. 

 Megalaima macclellandi, Moore, Horsf. &)• M. Cat. ii, p. 637. 

 Megatema hodgsoni, Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 358 ; Walden, P. Z. S. 



1866, p. 540 ; Stoliczka, J. A . S. B. xxxvii, pt. 2, p. 22 ; Marshall,- 



