MEGALAIMID. 121 
Famity, Megalaimide. 
Bill stout and somewhat conic, inflated at the sides, moderate 
in length or short, wide at the base, more or less compressed 
towards the tip; base of upper mandible continued backward 
to the gape, and usually furnished at the base with numerous 
stiff bristles projecting forwards ; some have the mandibles denti- 
culated, and grooved at the sides ; culmen generally blunt ; wings 
and tail short, the latter even or nearly so; with the feathers 
soft, only ten in number; toes in pairs, the hind-claws much 
curved ; tongue of ordinary structure. 
Genus, Megalaima, Gray. 
Bill moderate, about as long as the head, robust, conical, more 
or less wide at the base and compressed at the tip; culmen 
tolerably arched; upper mandible somewhat overlapping the 
lower one; gape wide; nostrils somewhat exposed in a groove at 
the side of the culmen; wings moderate, rounded ; tail short, 
nearly even ; feet truly zygodactyle; conspicuous tufts of bristles 
surrounding the bill, a series of them above each nostril, a tuft 
at each angle of the gape, and another growing from the chin. 
Megalaima caniceps, Frankl. 
193.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 810; Swinhoe and 
Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 63. 
THE ComMon GREEN BARBET. 
Length, 10°5; expanse, 16; wing, 5; tail, 35; tarsus, 11; 
bill at front, 1°37. 
Bill pale orange-brown; irides orange-brown; orbitar skin 
dull orange ; legs light yellowish-brown. 
Above green; paler on the flanks and lower belly ; vent and 
lower tail-coverts yellowish; head, neck, breast, and upper 
abdomen brownish; throat dusky-brown ; the feathers of these 
parts with narrow pale streaks, continued but gradually diminish- 
ing upon the green of the back; each wing-covert and tertiary 
has a whitish speck on the tip; forehead and neck almost 
uniform brown, with pale mesial streaks. 
Within our limits the Common Green Barbet has only been 
recorded from the forests on the Vindhian Hills, near Mhow, 
Central India, its place being taken elsewhere by the next 
species, with which it is often confounded. 
Megalaima inornata, Wald. 
193bis.—Butler, Guzerat; Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 459; 
Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 887. 
THE WESTERN GREEN BARBET. 
Length, 10°5; expanse, 16°5;; wing, 5-1; tail, 3:4; tarsus, 1:08; 
bill at front, 1°35. 
