BAEBETS. 



119 



trated account of these 1 birds in The Avicultural Maga- 

 zine, Second Series. Vol. III., pp. 323-330. He fed them 

 "almost exclusively on fruits and vegetable matter, in- 

 cluding cut-up raisins." 



COMMON GREEN OK JUNGLE BARBET (Cyanops caniceps). 



Bright green, streaked and spotted -with, yellowish 

 above ; wing-coverts slightly browner green ; primaries 

 dusky, green externally; inner secondaries green with 

 yellowish spots; lower back, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverte without stripes ; tail green above, bluer below ; 

 head, neck, throat, and breast brown streaked with 

 whitish, excepting on the throat; lores, front of cheeks, 

 and chin dark grey ; body from breast backwards 

 emerald-green, slightly brownish on abdomen; under 

 wing-coverts and inner lining of flights yellowish; bill 

 brownish-flesh ; feet dull chrome-yellow, claws brown ; 

 irid'es clear brown; naked orbital ring orange-yellow. 

 Female smaller than the male, with shorter wings and 

 tail. Hab., India. 



Jerdon ("Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 311) saye: "Its 

 loud cry is familiar to every sportsman, wherever its 

 range extends, and is often quite startling. Like the 

 call of the others of this group, it is something like the 

 word kutiir, Jcbtiir, kbtiir, preceded by a harsh sort of 

 laugh. They continue to call for some minutes at a 

 time, and are heard at all hours, frequently indeed at 

 night, especially when there is moonlight ; hence several 

 of the native names. Its usual food is fruit and berries, 

 occasionally insects. Mr. Elliot, in his remarks, notes 

 "on was shot pecking at the flowers of a tree." He 

 further states that on each side of the 1 throat there is 

 a naked spot with the skin wrinkled, which the bird 

 probably contracts and expands when calling." 



In Hume's "Nests and Eggs," Vol. II., pp. 322, 323, 

 and 324, we read : " Franklin's Green Barbet breeds in 

 richly-wooded, well-watered districts, especially in the 

 neighbourhood of hilly ground or hills, finding its way 

 up into the valleys of these to an elevation of some 

 2,000 or 3,000 feet, at any rate, all over Continental, 

 as opposed to Peninsular India. It lays in March and 

 April. At Bareilly I obtained fully-fledged young ones 

 by May 20, and Dr. King, writing from Mount Aboo, 

 says he obtained them on the 25th of that month. 



" Three or four is the usual number of eggs found, 

 and these appear to be laid very irregularly, ae quite 

 hard-set and almost fresh ones are found in the same 

 nest-hole. These latter, so far as I know, are always 

 excavated by the birds themselves in the trunk or one 

 of the larger branches of some soft-wooded tree, such 

 as the siris. In Bareilly we found no nest-hole at a less 

 height than 20ft., and one was at least 50ft. from the 

 ground. 



"There is, of course, no real 'nest, the eggs being 

 laid' on the bottom of the hole amongst a few chips. The 

 hole is comparatively small, not above 5in. in diameter 

 at bottom, from 6in. to 2ft. deep, and the passage, which 

 is very neatly cut and rounded, and nicely bevelled off 

 at the entrance, is only about 2^in. in diameter." 



" The eggs are somewhat elongated, very regular ovals, 

 dull white, and slightly glossy. They vary from 1.1 

 to 1.3 in length, and from 0.84 to 0.95 in breadth ; but 

 the average of a dozen eggs was 1.51 nearly by 0.88 

 nearly." 



Buss says that this bird has only once arrived living 

 in Europe, Mips Christiane Hagen'beck having in 1875 

 brought it to the " Cypria " Exhibition, at Berlin. Of 

 course, a common and widely-distributed Indian bird 

 like this might arrive in the English bird market at any 

 time. 



HODGSON'S BARBET (Cyanops lineata). 



Above grass-green, feathers of mantle and upper back 

 with yellowish- white centres; outer webs of primaries 

 olive-yellow towards the tips; tail green above, 'bluish 

 below; feathers of crown ashy- whitish edged with 

 brown, more pronounced on hind neck ; sides of head 

 whitish, the ear-coverts, hind cheeks, and sides of neck 

 with brown edges to the feathers ; throat not at all or 

 very slightly streaked ; feathers of fore-neck and breast 

 whitish broadly edged with brown ; sides of breast, 

 flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts pale emerald-green 

 with darker edges to the feathers; under wing-coverts 

 yellowish-white edged with brown ; flights below dark 

 brown, yellowish along inner web ; bill horn-yellow ; 

 feet fleshy yellow, base of claws dusky brown ; irides 

 deep brown and reddish-brown ; orbital ring deep yel- 

 low. Female with a broader bill. Hab., "Himalayas 

 to Assam and the Burmese countries, and reoccuirring 

 in Java." (Shelley.) 



All that Jerdon tells us about this Barbet is that " its 

 voice is very loud/' but in Hume's " Nests and Eggs of 

 Indian Birds," Vol. II., p. 325, we get some informa- 

 tion: "According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, this species 

 (the Lmeated Barbet) breeds in the valleys of the lower 

 regions of Nepal. It begins to lay about April, and the 

 young are ready to fly by June or July. It excavates 

 a deep hole, some 16in. in depth, in the trunk of some 

 decayed tree, and lays three or four pure white eggs, 

 which are figured as broad ovals, considerably pointed 

 towards one end, and measuring 1.3in. by 0.98in." 



Major C. T. Bingham informs us that in Tenasserim 

 "this Barbet was excessively common, but I succeeded 

 in finding onlv two nests, one on March 25, and the 

 other on" April 13. This latter contained four young- 

 ones barely fledged. Out of the former, which was a 

 mere hole leading to a shallow hollow in a dried bough 

 of a teak-tree, which, having been cut down years ago, 

 lay propped in a slanting position against a neighbour, 

 I took three fresh eggs, which I found lying on t!he bare 

 wood. The entrance-hole was irregular and evidently 

 not a recently cut one." 



" Some eggs are rather elongated ovals, the shells fine, 

 smooth, and rather fragile, but with scarcely any appre- 

 ciable glosis. Other eggs are regular ovals, sometimes 

 having a pyriform or even slightly cylindrical tendency ; 

 pure white and fairly, but not conspicuously, glossy. 



" An egg of this species, sent me from Sylhet by Mr. 

 Cripps, measures 1.25 by 0.95. Other eggs measure 

 from 1.16 to 1.38 in length, by 0.83 to 0.91 in breadth." 



This species reached the London Zoological Gardens 

 in 1877; in 1881 JamTach imported it, as also in 1894. 

 and in about 1896 or 1897 it appears to have arrived 

 at the Berlin Gardens. 



SMALL GREEN BARBET (Cyanops viridis). 



Above grass-green, primaries blackish internally, yel- 

 lowish towards tips of outer webs ; inner secondaries 

 bluish ; head, hind neck and under-surf ace ashy -whitish 

 with pale brown edges to the feathers, darker on head, 

 throat, and breast; hind neck slightly greenish and 

 distinctly streaked with brown ; sides and flanks bright 

 green with darker edges ; thighs and under tail-coverts 

 uniform green ; under wing-coverts yellowish-buff ; 

 flights below dusky, yellowish along inner welbs ; bill 

 pale brown, darker at tip of upper mandible ; feet 

 greenish-leaden ; irideis dark brown. Female smaMer 

 than male. Hab., Southern India. 



Jeirdon says (" Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 312): 

 "Thds is the common Green Baribet of the M'alalbar 



