TDURACOUS. 



121 



hole with tlie edges neatlv bevelled off inside and out. 

 The eggs are at the bottom of the cavity into ■which 

 tlie\- liave thus bored (and which they smoothen a good 

 deal interiorly), often a couple of feet below th© ifnnr, 

 and liiid merely on the chips produced in the course of 

 the work. 



The normal number of the eggs is four, Ibut I ha\"e not 

 unfreKiucntly found only tliree hard-eet ones or newly- 

 Hedged young birds. 



" llie hole varies in length from 1ft. to 4ft. or 5ft., 

 and' the diameter of the chamber, when, as sometimes 

 happen.*, this is cut entirely by themselves in sound 



Bites 



Ihi/:, 



I,r.VAILL.\NT s liAIlIlET. 



I hough soft wood, scarcely exceed.s 4in. The birds often 

 use the same hole year after year, but generally lengthen 

 it each .reason." 



'■ The long, narrow, pure ^vhite egg of this species, 

 ■\vhose fragile shell has rarely much, and is often devoid 

 of all, gloss, reminds one much of those of our Common 

 Indian Shrift (C aMnis). Typically the eggs are almost 

 cylindrical, tai>ering eoimewhat towards one end, but 

 the ends themselves are broad and obtuse, and no ten- 

 dency to point is observable ; they vary, however, much 

 -in size, and within certain limits in shape al.so. Here 

 and there a tolerably peirfect oval may be met with, and 

 a slightly p,\ii-iform variety is occasionally obtained. 

 When fre.ili and unblown, like so many eggs of this 

 type, they have a delicate pink blush. 



■'In length they vary from 0.87 to 1.07 inch, and in 



breadth from 0.62 to 0.72 inch ; but the average of a 

 very large series is 0.99 by 0.69 inch." 



ThiK Barbet was added to the collection at the London 

 Zoological Society's Gardens in 1901. Being a coanmon 

 and familiar Indian bird, there is no reason why it 

 should not be freely imported. 



PuRPLK B.\RBET {TrcicJti/jjJionus parintralus). 

 Glossy lilack, with blue-black edges to the feathers ; 

 lesser wing-coverts wholly white, or with broad black 

 tips; upper tail-covei-te narrowly edged with suilphur 

 yellow ; a small white spot at end of outer tail-feathers ; 

 forehead and eyebr-ow lake-red. extending to sides of 

 neck ; throat streaked with pinkish-grey ; a broad crim- 

 .=ou pectoral band ; remainder of under-surface bright 

 yellow, excepting at the sides, thighs, and under tail- 

 coverts, which are black with ovate yellow spote at tips 

 of feathers ; under wing-coverts white, dusky at base ; 

 fliglits lielow blackish externally, ashy-brown internally; 

 bill yellow ; feet blackish-gi-een ; irides reddish-brown ; 

 naked orbital region bright yellow. Female with the 

 bill much shorter and broader than in the male. 

 Hab., "West Africa from the Cameroons to Gaboon." 

 (Shelley.)^ 



1904, p. 91) says that he found 

 what he took to be the 

 gristly part of slugs in the 

 stomachs of this species. 

 This is all I have come across 

 respecting the wild life of the 

 bii-d, but it is probable that 

 it feeds, like other species 

 of its genus, upon fruits, 

 berries, leaves, and insects, 

 that it utters its notes from 

 a dead branch or bush, and 

 it is certain that it must 

 nest in a hole in the branch 

 of a tree and lay white eggs. 

 An example of this species 

 was purchased for the Ixin- 

 don Zoological Gardens in 

 July, 1884. It is not men- 

 tioned by Russ in his 

 " Fremdlandischen Stuben- 

 viigel." 



In The Avicultural Maya- 

 -Jnc for October, 1909. 

 Major Horsbrugh published 

 an account, illustrated by a 

 coloured plate, of Levail- 

 lant's Barbet (T. cafer), ol 

 which he brought home two 

 specimens. 



TO U RACOUS {Mnsoi>lmgi<he). 



It would .seem th;..t the Hoatzin (Opisthocomus) is 

 the iieai-est relative to the Touracous, whiclh aire also 

 believed to be related to the Cuckoos and Colies. Huxlev" 

 considei'^d the Hoatzin to approach more nearly to the 

 gallinaceous birds and pigeons than anything else ; but. 

 in some respects, he recognised an approach to the 

 Touracous. Garrod decided that the ancestor of the 

 Hoatzin branched off from the parent stem shortly 'oefore 

 the true Gallince first appeared, and about simul- 

 taneously with the independent pedigree of the Cucu- 

 lidce and Musopliagida:. 



The Touracous are fairly large brightly-coloured fruit- 

 e.ating hirds, confined to" the Ethiopian Region; they 

 are arboreal in their habits, but can run rapidly upon 



