XANTHOL^MA. 333 



the hot weather ascends the lower slopes of the hills. Its call, as 

 Jerdon mentions, is similar to that of the Crimson-breasted Barbet 

 (X. licemacepliala), but the two are easy to be distinguished from 

 each other. My brother obtained two fresh eggs of this species 

 early in March at an elevation of about 500 feet above sea-level. 

 The eggs were white, smooth, and glossless, measuring 0'94 by 

 0*^2, and 1 by 0*66. They were placed without any attempt at a 

 nest, in a hole cut by the birds, in a dead branch about 20 feet 

 from the ground.' 7 



An egg of this species, taken by Mr. Bourdillon in South Tra- 

 vaiicore, on the 6th of March, is a very elongated oval ; the shell 

 extremely fine and smooth, but almost entirely devoid of gloss. 

 It was, of course, white and spotless, and measured 0*98 in 

 length by 0-65 in breadth. 



Xantholaema rubricapilla (Gin.). The Small Ceylon Barbet. 

 Xantholsema rubricapilla (Gm.}, Hume, Cat. no. 198 bis. 



Colonel Legge writes, in the ' Birds of Ceylon': "The breed- 

 ing-season of this little bird lasts from March until June, and it 

 usually nests in the decayed branches of living trees, the bread- 

 fruit (which is generally much encumbered with small dead top 

 branches) being a favourite resort with it. It plies itself to the 

 task of excavating the hole with great assiduity, first of all slowly 

 tapping the wood all over until it has found what it imagines is a 

 soft place ; very often, after working in for an inch or so, it will 

 find that the wood is too hard for its capabilities, and will then 

 try another spot in the same branch. A nest I once found was in 

 the topmost branch of a bread-fruit ; the habitation was an old one, 

 but close to it were one or two essays at making a fresh hole ; the 

 wood had evidently proved too hard, and it had returned, perhaps 

 reluctantly, to the old nest. The branch was about 4 or 5 inches 

 in diameter, and the hole entering the cavity 2 inches and perfectly 

 round ; the nest was about 6 inches below the aperture, and the 

 young, which were three in number, reposed upon the bare wood 

 without any nest-lining whatever. The eggs are glossy white, 

 rather spherical in shape, and measure about 0-9 by 0'65 inch." 



