128 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 
They begin practising even as nestlings, and are 
certainly untiring songsters according to their lights. 
In disposition they are gloomy and unsociable, but not 
ferocious ; that is, they are hard biters, but do not go out 
of their way for a fight. Barbets are found all round the 
world in most warm climates, but not in the Australian 
region, The huge-billed Toucans of America are closely 
related to the Barbets, but are not found in India, the 
birds often so called there being Hornbills, which are a 
distinct family altogether, confined to the Old World. 
In confinement Barbets live very well, and are orna- 
mental in an aviary; if reared from the nest they 
become very tame, and they are easy to manage, as they 
can be fed on fruit from the first, and so give less trouble 
than most young birds. They are gross feeders, and eat 
a great deal of food, so that the more fruit they get, the 
better, as fruitis not so fattening as satoo or sop. Thev 
must not as a rule be shut up closely together, as they 
will fight to the death in such a case, and it is as well 
not to have more than a pair of each kind even in an 
aviary. 
THE COPPERSMITH OR CRIMSON-BREASTED BaARBET 
(Xantholaema haematocephala) called Tambayat in Hindu- 
stani, and Chota bussunt in Bengal, is a very well- 
known garden bird all over the Empire, but does not 
go. any distance up the hills. Outside our limits 
it ranges east as far as the Philippines, so that, 
although it is one of the smallest of our Barbets, it 
extends over a very wide territory. Common as it is in 
Calcutta, where one may see it even in the trees lining 
