120 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



coast, extending up the Neilgiherries, -where very com- 

 mon in the dense woods, and along the Malabar Ghaits 

 as far as N.L. 14 deg. Its voice is not quite so loud 

 as that, of the last species (M. caniceps). Ite flighit is, 

 like thait of the others of this genus, tolerably rapid, 

 direct, and sligihitly unduliaiting. It perches generally 

 on the higher branches of trees. I have frequently 

 heard both this and the last species calling by moon- 

 light, and have always found fruit in its stomach." 



"Laytard relates of the M. zeylanica of Ceylon that, 

 in confinemefnit , although it ate fruit gireedily, it would 

 yet eat raw meat, and devoured several little Amad'ma* 

 kept in an aviary witih it. This is quite in conformity 

 Trith what has been remarked of the South American 

 Toucans in captivity. Mr. Bennett describes in full 

 detail the despatching of an unlucky Goldfinch by a 

 oaged Toucan. All of the species build in holes of 

 trees, laying three or four shining white eggs." 



Hume ("Nests and Eggs," Second Edition, Vol. II., 

 pp. 325. 326, 328) says: "I have never taken the eggs 

 of the Small Green Barbet ; but Mr. Davison tells me 

 that ' it breeds very commonly on the Nilghiris, in 

 the trunk or larger branches of dry and partially 

 decayed trees'.' Dr. Jerdon seems to question their 

 excavating their own nests ; but f this there ca.n be no 

 doubt, as I have repeatedly seen them at work. The 

 holes vary considerably, both with regard to the depth 

 of the entrance-tube, if it may be so called, and also 

 with regard to the depth of the egg-chamber. The hole 

 is shaped something like a retort with a very short 

 neck. The eggs are pure white, rather glossy, and gene- 

 rally nearly as thick at the smaller as at the larger end, 

 but in this, as well as in size, they vary very con- 

 siderably. The normal number of eggs is, I should say, 

 four, but very often only three are laid, while occa- 

 sionally even five are found. Nothing is used to line 

 the hole, the eggs being merely laid on a few chips of 

 decayed wood. The bird appears rather to sit over 

 than on her eggs, as she may be seen for hours together 

 with her head sticking out of the hole. Breeds in 

 March, April, and May, and sometimes continues laying 

 even as late as the first or second week in June." 



" The eggs of this ispecies, sent me from the Nilghiris 

 by Miss Cockburn and Mr. Davison, are dull pure 

 white, only moderately glossy, more <or less broad ovals. 



"They vary .in length from 1.07 to 1.22 inch, and in 

 breadth from 0.75 to 0.96 inch ; but they average 1.13 

 by 0.86 inch." 



Russ states that, so far as he knows, this species 

 has only once been imported alive, by G. Bosz, of 

 Cologne, who sent it to him for identification: never- 

 theless, a common South Indian bird might appear in 

 the English market any day. 



CRIMSON-BREASTED BARBET (Xantholcema 

 Jtcematocephala}. 



Above yellowish olive-green, many of the feathers 

 with yellow edges, lesser and outer median and greater 

 wing-coverts grass-green, bastard -wing, primary-coverts, 

 and flights [blackish internally ; primaries yellowish 

 towards tips of outer webs ; a 'broad scarlet frontal band 

 succeeded iby a band of black ; occiput, nape, and hind- 

 neck washed iwitJi bluish ; sides of (head black ; a 

 narrow eyebrow streak and a broad streak below the 

 eye brigiht sulphur -yellow ; hinder cheeks and back of 

 <>verts washed with bluish-green ; throat bright 

 sulphur-yellow, varied behind witih [black ; sides of neck 

 green, wsshea with bluish-grey ; fore-neck fbrigibt 

 scarlet, shaded at back iwith golden yellow ; rest of 

 under surface pale yellow, whitish in the oenitre, and 

 streaked with .green on sides, flanks, and under tail- 



coverts ; edge of wing green ; flights ibelow dusky, 

 yellowish along inner edge ; bill dark horny slate-colour, 

 paller at l base ; feet deep coral ipink ; irides dark brown, 

 witih a pa ! le or pearl-grey oulter circle. Female smaller 

 and slightly duller it ban (the male. Hiab., Ceylon and 

 India, eastward to Burma, and through Malaysia to 

 Sumatra and the Philippines. 



Jerdon observes {"Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 316) : 

 " It is very common wiherever itlbere is & sufficiency of 

 trees, inhabiting open spaces in the jungles, groves of 

 trees, avenues, and gardens, being very familiar, and 

 approaching dose ito houses, and not infrequently 

 pencilling on the housetop. As far as I have observed, 

 it does not climb like the Woodpeckers, but hops about' 

 the hranc'ies like other perching bnrds. The Rev. Mr. 

 Philippe, indeed, as quoted by Hbrsfield. states tlhait it- 

 runs up and down the tree like a Woodpecker, and ottiher 

 obseirvers have asserted it climbs to its hole ; but I con- 

 fess tlh'at I 'have never seen ttihis, and Mr. Blyitih is i 

 decidedly of opinion that the Barbets never climb. This 

 naturalist found tlhat one which Hie kepib alive would 

 take insects inlto its mouth and munch them, but 

 swallowed none of them, and forsook Ithem immediately 

 when fruit was offered. Its chief food is fru 

 various kinds, sometimes perhaps insects. It has a 

 remarkaibly loud note, which sounds .like took-took-took, 

 and this it generally utters when seated on the top of 

 some 'tree, nodding its head at each call, firsit to one 

 side, then to another. Sundevall states that it is like 

 a rather low note on the flute, from the llower G ; to the 

 second E. This sound, and the motion of its head 

 accompanying it, lhave given origin to the name of 

 ' Coppersmith,' by which it is known both among 

 natives and Europeans. The sound often appears to 

 come from a different direction to tihalt from which it 

 does really proceed ; and this appears to me to depend 

 on the direction of the bird's ihead wihen uttering the 

 call. Mr. Philipps accounts for it by saying that it 

 alters the intensity of its call. Sundevall remarks that 

 'the same individual always utters the same note, but 

 that two are seldom heard to make it exactly alike. 

 When, therefore, Itowo or more birds are sitting near 

 eacih other, a not. unpleasant music arises from the 

 alternation of the notes, each sounding like the tone on" 

 a series of bells.' It breeds in holes in trees, laying 

 two (or more) white eggs. A pair bred in my garden at 

 Sangor, in the cross-beam of a vinery. The en,t> 

 wasfrom the under-side of the beam, perfectly circular. 

 It appeared to have been used for several ye are. and 

 the bird had goe on lengthening tine cavity inside 

 by year till the distance from the original entrance 

 was' four or five feet ; and it had then made another 

 entrance, also from below, about 2^ feet from the nest. 

 I quite recently observed a me* of this bird in a In 

 a decayed branch of a tree, close to a house in a 1 

 thoroughfare in Calcutta." 



Hum-e says ("Nests and' Eggs," Vol. II., pp. 329 

 330, 332) : " I have always found the nest of the Copper- 

 smith, or. as Jerdon p'lea^ses to call it, tlfe Crimson- 

 breasted Barbet, in March, April, or May; but in Cen- 

 tral and (Southern India it begins, I believe, to lay 

 earlier. 



Sometimes it fixes upon a branch, hollow from end 

 to end, and with a wide natural aperture, but in these 

 cases it generally cuts a new entrance, nearer to the 

 bottom of the cavity, some 2in. in diameter, and always. 

 I think, on the underside of the bough. As a rule, 

 however, like others of the family, these Barbets seem 

 to be able to find out branches that are decayed^ in- 

 ternally, although externally to the human eye exhibit- 

 ing no' signs of this, and into such, through the harder 

 external shell of the branch, they cut a perfectly circular 



