mk6alaimid^. 313 



This group is most developed in Malay ana, only two species 

 extending to our province. 



195. Cyanops Asiatica, Lath. 



Bucco, apud Latham — Blyth, Cat. 325 — Horsf., Cat. 931 — 

 Capito cyanicollis, Vieillot, Galerie des Oiseaux, pi. 35 — 

 B. cyanops, Cuv. — B. casruligula, Hodgson — Burra bussuni 

 bairi, Beng. ; also Burra benebo, Beng. ; Corul, of Mussulmans 

 in Bengal — Suttra of the plains (Tickell). 



The Blue-throated Barbet. 



Dcscr. — Green above, with a faint ruddy or coppery gloss on 

 the. back, paler and more grassy below; forehead, occiput, and a 

 spot on either side of the base of the fore-neck, crimson ; band 

 across the crown, continued backward as an upper supercilium, 

 black ; cheek, ear-coverts, moustache, throat, and front of the neck, 

 including a narrow lower supercilium, verditer-blue. 



Bill greenish-yellow at the base, black at the tip ; irides 

 reddish-hazel ; nude orbital skin tinged with orange ; eyelids 

 with a circlet of orange wart-like papillse ; legs greenish ashy. 



Length 9^ inches ; extent 13| ; wing 4^ ; tail 3; bill at front 

 ■j-| ; tarsus |. 



The Blue-throated Barbet is found throughout Lower Bengal, ex- 

 tending through the sub- Himalayan region, as far as the Dehra 

 Dhoon, also Assam and Sylhet, being rare in Arakan. It is common 

 above Calcutta to Barrackpore ; and I observed it all through 

 Lower Bengal, from Calcutta to the Sikim Terai ; and it is found in 

 some of the warmer valleys in the Sikim Himalayas. Buchanan 

 Hamilton states that it breeds in holes in trees, which it excavates 

 itself. " The name Bussunt bairi,"" says he, "signifies the old woman 

 of the spring." Tickell describes a nest made of grass, and placed 

 in a IMowa tree, as belonging to this species ; but of exceedingly 

 doubtful origin, I imagine. Pearson states that it has two broods 

 in the year. 



It is rather a noisy bird, with a very peculiar call, which 

 Sundevall endeavours to imitate by the word rokuroj-mkuroj; 

 and it is syllabilized by Mr. Blyth as kuruwuk, kuruicuk, kurnwuk. 



2 R 



