Notes on Odt-of-thb;-way Birds. 129 



young birds being reared at first on insects, then on chopped-up 

 raw rabbit (fur and all) and hard-boiled egg, which was the usual 

 food of the old birds. 



Rollers will devour any small bird they can swallow, and I 

 have seen both the European and the Indian species at the Zoo 

 greedily gulp down lettuce in large pieces. Chopped lettuce 

 should therefore be supplied, and it is as well to dilute, as it were, 

 chopped raw meat with biscuit-meal or dry-boiled rice. Suitable 

 companions for Rollers are other large insect-eaters and such 

 birds as small Gulls, Plovers, and the Great Laughing King- 

 fishers (^Dacelo). 



Woodpeckers I never bothered much about, as they are 

 better known in Europe than Rollers, but I reared chiefly on cock- 

 roaches, the beautiful Golden-backed species {B?achrptcriius 

 aurantucs) which is the commonest over most of India, and the 

 best Woodpecker I have seen in captivity. However, our own 

 species are so good, that they quite sufficiently represent the 

 family, and I hope some who have had experience with them 

 will summarize their results with this family in the present 

 series. 



I never troubled to send any Rollers or Woodpeckers home, 

 there being already European species available, for I made a rule, 

 when sending birds for the Zoo, to avoid as far as possible, repre- 

 sentatives of groups already available either in nature or in the 

 trade, holding that it is not the business of a scientific official 

 to encourage stinginess or want of enterprise in scientific socie- 

 ties, or to interfere with the hard-earned livelihood of those much 

 and unjustly abused individuals, our dealers. 



For the same reason I had little to do with Barbets, the 

 Blue-fronted {Cyanops asiatica) being already well-known when 

 I went to India in 1894 ; but my experience with the Copper- 

 smitli or Crimson-brested Barbet i^Xantholcenia hcBniatocephald) 

 may be worth recording, as it throws light on some recurrent 

 avicultural problems. In the Marshalls' monograph of the 

 Capilonidce or Barbets will be found the statement that Barbets 

 do not thrive in captivity, a statement that has been duly copied 

 by other writers ignorant of aviculture. Now everyone knows 

 that Barbets are easy subjects, treated as Mr. Towusend has 



