WOODPECKERS. 



or, being far from shy, they frequently approach gardens and 

 groves. Their food consists of various fruits and insects, which 

 they obtain whilst hopping amongst the branches. Wlien roo.st- 

 ing singly on the uppermost bough of a tree, they usually utter 

 a monotonous note that lasts for ten minutes or more : this note 

 is very peculiar, and somewhat resembles a distant hammering of 

 metal. Some of them have been observed picking holes in-a hori- 

 zontal rotten branch, wherein they build their nest, precisely in 



Fig. 130.— Richardson's Barbrt (JOapito Rkhardsoni). 



the manner of the woodpeckers. Owing to the shortness of their 

 wings, their general proportions are heavy, and their flight is low. 

 The Barbets have the same kind of feet and possess the same 

 faculty of climbing as the woodpeckers, but in a much less degree; 

 their tail-feathers arc soft and of the ordinary construction ; the 

 bill in some is very strong, straight, and compressed — in others 

 it is greatly depressed, and, in one group, short and toothed. j\Ir. 

 Burchell, the celebrated African traveller, was the first naturalist 

 who discovered the affinity of these remarkable birds to the wood- 

 peckers, having repeatedly heard their loud tapping in the forests 

 of Southern Africa, and witnessed their dexterity in climbing trees. 

 In the straight-billed or typical barbets we find the predominant 



