vI CAPITONIDAE — AAQ 
throughout the day or on moonlight nights. The latter cry is 
variously sylabled kuttooruk, tok-tok, or poo-poo-poop, while its 
likeness to the sound of striking metal has given the name of 
“ Copper-smith,” “ Tinker-bird,” and “ Iron-smith” to Xantholaema 
haematocephala, Barbatula pusilla, and Cyanops faber. While 
uttering their protracted notes Barbets often move their heads 
from side to side, and certain American species jerk their tails 
over their backs like Toucans. The food consists of fruits of every 
sort, buds and petals of flowers, and even green bark, or in many 
cases almost entirely of insects; in captivity pieces of meat or 
small birds seem acceptable, the latter being usually battered 
upon some hard substance before being swallowed. When feeding 
on trees these birds are so noiseless that the falling berries alone 
betray their presence, while they quit the feast with great reluct- 
ance. They cut neat circular nesting-holes, which turn down- 
wards and widen out below, in soft or decaying wood, generally 
on the under side of a branch; and lay three, four, or even five 
egos, oval, thin-shelled, white and somewhat shining, on a few 
chips or sometimes other substances. A week or two may be 
occupied in excavating the cavity, while it is a moot question 
whether the tapping that goes on in spring is made in finding 
suitable breeding quarters or in obtaining insects. Von Heuglin 
saw two borings in banks. The young accompany their parents 
for a considerable time. Barbets do not thrive well as cage-birds. 
The range extends throughout Tropical Asia, Africa, and 
America, and even slightly beyond those bounds in the two 
former; but America possesses only the large genus Capito and the 
two species of Zetragonops, whereas the other regions divide the 
remaining groups fairly evenly between them. Captain Shelley? 
admits nineteen genera and a hundred and ten species. The 
former are difficult to diagnose, and depend largely on colour; of 
the latter the subjoined are merely a few of the most typical or 
remarkable forms. Pogonorhynchus (including Lrythrobucco and 
Melanobucco) and Tricholaema, including respectively some fifteen 
and ten species, are exclusively African groups, noticeable for 
the long, black bristles before the eye and below the beak.  P. 
dubius of West Africa has bluish-black upper parts, with a little 
crimson on the wing-coverts and a white dorsal patch; the 
cheeks and ear-coverts are crimson, separated by a black hne; 
1 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. 1891, pp. 13-121. 
VOL. IX 2G 
