US 



FOREIGX BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



sured 1.35 x 1.06, 1.30 < 1.05, 1.32 x 1.05, and 

 1.37 X 1.01.' " 



The €ggs are in shape broad ovals, always somewhat, 

 often conspicuously, pointed towards the small end. In 

 colour they are pure dull white, with only here and 

 there in some eggs a faint trace of gloss." 



Thf London Zoological Society purchased its first 

 example of this Barbet in 1876; others were secured 

 in later years ; in 1895 the Berlin Gardens acquired the 

 species. In 1908 an example was exlubited bv Mr. 

 Townsend at the London Cage-Bii-d Association's Show. 



Blue-cheeked Barbet (Cyanops asiatica). 



Above pale grass-gi-een ; primary-coverts and 

 primaries slightly darker green, the latter externally 

 yellowish toward.s the tips; tail green above, blue 

 below ; crown, nape, and lores scarlet ; a vellowish line 

 towaivls the forehead, followetl bv a black band, which 

 IS continued backwards above the evebrow ; the latter 

 and sides of head generally bright sky-blue, as also is 

 the throat; sides of neck and under surface generallv 

 yellowish-green ; a sixjt of scarlet on each side of the 

 throat; under wing-coverts huffish; flights below dull 

 brown, yellowish at inner edges ; bill greenish-yellowish- 

 horn with black cidiiien ; feet dull green ; margins of 

 eyelids orange ; irides hazel to reddish-brown. Female 

 apparently rather larger, but with shorter whig and 

 tail; !her bill is slightly shorter and broader, arid the 

 culmen, seen in profile, is rather more arched. Hab., 

 '•Himalayas from Cashmere eastward to the Burmese 

 coimtries and Xort.hern Tenasserim, occuring also in 

 Dacca and near Calcutta." (Shellev.) 



Jerdon (-'Birds of India," Vol" I., pp. 313, 314) 

 says:— "Buchanan Hamilton states that it breads in 

 holes in trees, which it excavates itself. 'The name 

 Jliissunt hairi.' says he, 'eignifies the old woman of 

 t!ie spring.' Tickell describes a nest made of graes, 

 and placed in a Morva tree, ae belonging to this speoies, 

 but of exceedingly doubtful origin, I imagine. Pearson 

 states that it has two broods in the year. 



"It is rather a noisy biixl, with a'verv peculiar call, 

 \\hich Sundevall endeavours to imitate" bv the word 

 rukuroj-roluroj : and it is syllabilised bv Blvth a<; 

 Inridrrik, I:ui-iiu-h1.\ kuruv„l:. It is more siibdued tlian 

 the call of the last group [Megalama), but stiU con- 

 siderably like it, without the preliminary cachinnation. 

 It hope actively about the branches of trees, and lives 

 entirely on fruit. Tvhich Sundevall said he found alwavs 

 broken asunder." 



In Hume's " Xeste and Eggs," Vol. II., pp. 320. 321, 

 are the following notes:— "Mr. R. Thompson says: — 

 • The Bkie-throat«d Barbet breeds in April and ^May, 

 dinging out holes in the decayed branches of trees.' 



■' ' It is a common breeder in our Kumaon forests, 

 keeping entirely to the hilly regions. "Kuttooruk, 

 kuttooruk, kuttooruk," is its ciy.' 



" Mr. Blyth tells us that in Lower Bengal it has two 

 broods, one in the month of May, the other in 

 Xovember. 



"Colonel G. F. L. Marshall says that his shikaree 

 found a nest-hole in Kalsi Grove (Dehra Doon). ' The 

 entrance was on the water side of a bough about 

 15 inches in girth, and near the top of the tree. The 

 hole was circular, and about 10 inches in depth.' 



" Several nests found in M.iy in the neighbourhood 

 of Darjeeling each contained three fresh eggs. One was 

 in a hole in a large tree about 6 feet from the ground ; 

 two others were in holes in large branches of trees. "The 

 one first mentioned had a large pad of shavings, appa- 

 rently taken off by a plane, and collected by the birds. 

 The others had scraps of decayed wood as a' bed for the 

 nest. 



"Another nest-hole found in Julv contained three 

 fresh eggs, had also in it a large pad, consisting almost 

 exclusively of coarse vegetable fibre, apparently strips 

 of the bark of some herbaceous plant, but a few pieces 

 cf grass, a piece of red wool, and one or tw'o other 

 similar miscellaneous scraps are intermingled in the 

 pad. MTietber the Barbets can possibly themselves col- 

 lect these pads, or whether they take possession of 

 lioles in which other species have already collected 

 them. I have not been able to ascertain. 



" The eggs vary from rather broad to oomsiderably 

 elongated ovals, and are not uncommonly slightly 

 pointed towaixis one end. The shell is fine" and com- 

 pact, and in some specimens has a slight gloss, in 

 others is didl and almost entirely glossless. The colour 

 is, of course, pure white. 



" In length the eggs vary from 1.03 to 1.13, and in 

 breadth from 0.79 to 0.87"; but the average of eight 

 eggs is 1.09 by 0.83." 



A tolerably fi-equently imported species, which first 

 arrived at the London Zoological Gardens in 1866, a 

 good many other specimens having since come to hand. 

 Both in Gennany and England various aviculturists 

 have owned specimens, one in iliss Alderson's posses- 

 sion being described by her as recently as February, 

 1908. [The AviciiUiiral Magazine, Second Series, 

 Vol. VL, p. 129.) 



GoLDEN-THHO.\TED B.VRBET (Ci/aiwps franUinl). 



Above golden grass-green ; lesser wing-coverts deep 

 blue, median and greater coverts edged with blue : 

 l)astard-wing, primary-coverts, and flights black, blue ex- 

 ternaUy, excepting the secondaries, which are green ; 

 crown bright golden yellow shading into scarlet on fore- 

 head and nape.; sides of head black ; bliush on sides of 

 nape ; ear-coverts ashy-greyish, extended over back of 

 cheeks and lower throat ; front of cheeks, chin, and 

 upper throat golden yellow, rest of body below yellowish 

 green ; tail below blue ; under wing-coverts yellowish 

 buff, tinged with green ; flights below blaclusb, yellowish 

 along inner edges : bill black at tip, diff usedly grey at 

 base ; " feet green, claws dusky ; iris brown " (J. 

 Scully) ; " feet pearl bluish, irides orange-yellow in 

 Gronvold's drawing from life. Hab., ' Eastei-n Hima- 

 layas, Assam, and Manipur.' " (Shelley^) 



Jerdon says ("Birds of India," Vol. 1., p. 314): — 

 " This handsome Barbet is very common at Darjeeling 

 — that is, at a certain altitude, from 4,000 feet to 

 8,000 feet, and ujiwards. Its usual cry is something 

 like Icaflal-lcattcih-haltak. It lives entirely on fruit." 



The following notes are from Hume's " Nests and 

 Eggs," Vol. II., p. 322 : — " According to Mr. Hodgson's 

 notes, this species, the Golden-throated Barbet, begins 

 to lay in April, breeding in holes in trees in the central 

 hiUs of Nepal and SikHm, and in the Terai. The 

 nest-hole is about 10 or 12 inches in deptTi ; the eggs, 

 three or four in number, are pure white, and one that 

 is figured measures 1.1 by 0.85 inch ; a broad, regular 

 oval. 



"Mr. Mandelli has favoured me with an egg of this 

 species taken at Ginzon the 5th August, at an elevation 

 of about 3,500 feet. The nest-hole was placed in, a 

 medium-.sizefl tree at about 8 feet from the ground, and 

 contained two fresh eggs, 



" The egg is a moderately broad oval, pure white, 

 and with very little gloss, and measures 1.11 in length 

 by 0.82 in breadth." 



Mr. Reginald Phillipps acquired two .specimens of 

 this pretty species in Seiytember. 1902, which he sub- 

 i«equently forwarded to Mrs. Johnstone, and one of them 

 eventually found its way to our London Zoological Gar- 

 dens. Mr, Plrillipps has published an interesting illus- 



