118 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



sured 1.35 x 1.06, 1.30 x 1.05, 1.32 x 1.05, and 

 1.37 x 1.01.' '" 



The eggs are in shape broad ovals, always somewhat, 

 often conspicuously, pointed towards the small end. In 

 colour they are pure dull white, with only here and 

 there in some eggs a faint trace of gloss." 



The London Zoological Society purchased its first 

 example of this Barbet in 1876 ; others were secured 

 in later years ; in 1895 the Berlin Gardens acquired the 

 species. In 1908 an example was exhibited by Mr. 

 Townsend at the London Cage-Bird Association's Show. 



BLUE-CHEEKED BARBET (Cyanops asiatica). 



Above pale grass-green ; primary-coverts and 

 primaries slightly darker green, the latter externally 

 yellowish towards the tips; tail green above, blue 

 below ; crown, nape, and lores scarlet ; a yellowish line 

 towards the forehead, followed by a black band, which 

 is continued backward* above the eyebrow ; the latter 

 and sides of head generally bright sky-blue, as also is 

 the throat ; sides of neck 'and under surface generally 

 yellowish-green ; a spot of scarlet on each side of the 

 throat; under wing-coverts buffish ; flights below dull 

 brown, yellowish at inner edges ; bill greenish-yellowish- 

 horn with black culmen ; feet dull green ; margins of 

 eyelids orange ; irides hazel to reddish-brown. Female 

 apparently rather larger, but with shorter wing and 

 tail ; her ibill is slightly shorter and broader, and the 

 culmen, seen in profile, is rather more arched. Hah., 

 " Himalayas from Cashmere eastward to the Burmese 

 countries and Northern Tenasserim, occuring also in 

 Dacca and near Calcutta." (Shelley.) 



Jerdon (" Birds of India," Vol* I., pp. 313, 314) 

 says: "Buchanan Hamilton states that it breeds in 

 holes in trees, which it excavates itself. ' The name 

 Ihtssunt lairi.' says he, 'signifies the old woman of 

 the spring. ' Tickell describes a nest made of .grass, 

 and placed in a Morva tree, as belonging to this species, 

 but of exceedingly doubtful origin. I imagine. Pearson 

 states that it has two broods in the year. 



"It is rather a noisy bird, with a" very peculiar call, 

 which Sundevall endeavours to imitate by the word 

 rokuroj-rokuroj ; and it is syllabilised by Blyth as 

 kitruwiil-, kuruiauk, kin-uu-nlc. It ds more subdued than 

 the call of the last group (Megalcema), but still con- 

 siderably like it, without the preliminary cachinnation. 

 It hope actively about the branches of trees, and lives 

 entirely on fruit, which Sundevall said he found always 

 broken asunder." 



In Hume's " Nests and P^ggs," Vol. II., pp. 320, 321, 

 are the following notes:- "Mr. R. Thompson says: 

 ' The Blue-throated Barbet breeds in April and 'May, 

 digging out holes in the decayed branches of trees. 



'''It is a common breeder in our Kumaon forests, 

 keeping entirely to the hilly regions. " Kuttooruk, 

 kuttooruk, kuttooruk," is ite cry.' 



'' Mr. Blyth tells us that in Lower Bengal it has two 

 broods, one in the month of May, the other in 

 November. 



" Colonel G. F. L. Marshall says that his shikaree 

 found a nest-hole in Kalsi Grove (Dehra Doon). 'The 

 entrance was on the water side of a bough about 

 15 inches in girth, and near the top of the tree. The 

 lir>le was circular, and about 10 inches in depth.' 



"Several nests found in May in the neighbourhood 

 of Darjeeling each contained three fra-h eggs. One was 

 in a hole in a large tree about 6 feet from the ground ; 

 two others were in holes in large branches of trees. The 

 one first mentioned had a large pad of shavings, appa- 

 rently taken off by a plane, and coPer-ted by the birds. 

 The ethers had scraps of decayed wood as a bed for the 

 nest. 



"Another nest-hole found in July contained three 

 fresh eggs, had also in it a large pad, consisting almost 

 exclusively of coarse vegetable fibre, apparently strips 

 of the bark of some herbaceous plant, but a few pieces 

 of grass, a piece of red wool, and one or two other 

 similar miscellaneous scraps are intermingled in the 

 pad. Whether the Barbets can possibly themselves col- 

 lect these pads, or whether they take possession of 

 holes in which other species have already collected 

 them, I have not been able to ascertain. 



" The eggs vary from rather broad to considerably 

 elongated ovals, and are not uncommonly slightly 

 pointed towards one end. The shell is tine and com- 

 pact, and in some specimens 'has a slight gloss, in 

 others is dull and almost entirely glosslese. The colour 

 is, of course, pure white. 



" In length the eggs vary from 1.03 to 1.13, and in 

 breadth from 0.79 to 0.87; but the average of eight 

 eggs is 1.09 by 0.83." 



A tolerably frequently imported species, which first 

 arrived at the London Zoological Gardens in 1866, a 

 good many other specimens having since come to hand. 

 Both in Germany and England various aviculturists 

 have owned specimens, one in Miss Alderson's posses- 

 sion being described by her as recently as February, 

 1908. (The Avicultural Magazine, Second Series, 

 Vol. VI., p. 129.) 



GOLDEN- THROATED BARBET (Cyanosis franl-lini). 



Above golden grass-green ; lesser wing-coverts deep 

 blue, median and greater coverts edged with blue ; 

 bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and flights black, blue ex- 

 ternally, excepting the secondaries, which are green ; 

 crown bright golden yellow shading into scarlet on fore- 

 head and nape ; sides of head black ; bluish on sides of 

 nape ; ear -coverts ashy-greyish, extended over back of 

 cheeks and lower throat ; front of cheeks, chin, and' 

 upper throat golden yellow, rest of body below yellowish 

 green ; tail below blue ; under wing-coverts yellowish 

 buff, tinned with green ; flights below blackish, yellowish 

 along inner edges; bill black at tip, diffusedly grey at 

 'base ; " feet green, claws dueky ; iris brown " ( J. 

 Scully) ; " feet pearl bluish, irides orange-yellow in 

 Grb'nvold's dirawing from life. Haib., ' Eastern Hima- 

 layas, Assam, and Manipur.' ' (Shelley.) 



Jerdon says ("Birds of India," Vol. i., p. 314): 

 " This handsome Barbet is very common at Darjeeling 

 that is, at a certain altitude," from 4,000 feet to 

 8,000 feet, and upwards. Its usual cry is something 

 like kattak-kattak-Jsattak. It lives entirely on fruit." 



The following notes are .from Hume's "Nests and 

 Eggs," Vol. II., p. 322 :" According to Mr. Hodgson's 

 notes, this species, the Golden-throated Barbet, begins 

 to lay in April, breeding in holes in trees in the central 

 hills of Nepal and Sikkim, and in the Terai. The 

 nest-hole ift about 10 or 12 inches in depth ; the eggs, 

 three or four in number, are pure white, and one that 

 is figured measures 1.1 by 0.85 inch ; a broad, regular 

 oval. 



' Mr. Mandelli has favoured me with an egg of this 

 species taken at Ginzon the 5th August, at an elevation 

 of about 3,500 feet. The nest-hole was placed in a 

 iih'dium-sized tree at about 8 feet from the ground. an:l 

 contained two fresh e 



" The egg is a moderately broad oval, pure white, 

 and with very little gloss, and measures 1.11 in length 

 by 0.82 in breadth." 



' Mr. Reginald Phillipps acquired two specimens of 

 (his pretty species in September. 1902, which he sub- 

 sequently forwarded to Mrs. Johnston?, and one of them 

 eventually found its way to our London Zoological Gar- 

 dens. Mr. Phillipps has published an interesting illus- 



