TOUKACOUS. 



121 



hole with, the edges neatly bevelled off inside and out. 

 The eggs are at the bottom of the cavity into which 

 they have thus ibored (and which they smoothen a good 

 deal interiorly), often a couple of feet below the door, 

 and laid merely on the chips produced in the course of 

 the work. 



The normal number of the eggs is four, Ibut I have not 

 infrequently found only three hard-eet ones or newly- 

 fledged young birds. 



"The 'hole varies in length from 1ft. to 4ft. or 5ft., 

 and' the diameter of the chamber, when, as sometimes 

 happens, this is cut entirely by themselves in sound 



LEVAILLANTS BARBET. 



though soft wood, scarcely exceeds 4in. The birds often 

 use the same hole year after year, but generally lengthen 

 it each season." 



" The long, narrow, pure white egg of this species, 

 whose fragile shell has rairely much, and is often devoid 

 of all, gloss, reminds one much of those of our Common 

 Indian Swift (C. afKnis). Typically the eggs are almost 

 cylindrical, tapering somewhat towards one end, but 

 the ends themselves are broad and obtuse, and no ten- 

 dency to point is observablei ; they vary, however, much 

 in size, and within certain limits in shape also. Here 

 and there a tolerably perfect oval may be met with, and 

 a slightly pyriform variety is occasionally obtained. 

 When fresh and unblown, like so. many eggs of this 

 *ype, they have a delicate pink bluih. 



" In length they vary from 0.87 ;to 1.07 inch, and in 



breadth from 0.62 to 0.72 inch ; but the average of a 

 very large series is 0.99 by 0.69 inch." 



This Barbet was added to the collection at the London 

 Zoological Society's Gardens in 1901. (Being a common 

 and familiar Indian bird, there is no reason why it 

 should not be freely imported. 



PURPLE BARBET (TracJiyphonus purpuratus). 



Glossy black, with blue-black edges to the feathers ; 

 lesser wing-coverts wholly white, or with broad black 

 tips ; upper tail-coverte narrowly edged with sulphur 

 yellow ; a small white spot at end of outer tail-feathers ; 

 forehead and eyebrow lake-red, extending to sides of 

 neck ; throat streaked with pinkish-grey ; a broad crim- 

 son pectoral band ; remainder of under-surface bright 

 yellow, excepting at the sides, thighs, and' under tail- 

 covert*, which are black with ovate yellow spots at tips 

 of feathers ; under wing-coverts white, dusky at base ; 

 flights below blackish externally, ashy-brown internally ; 

 bill yellow ; feet blackish-green ; irides leddish-brown, ; 

 naked orbital region bright yellow. Female with the 

 bill much shorter and broader than in the male. 

 Hab., "West Africa from the Cameroons to Gaboon." 

 (Shelley.) 



G. L. Bates (The Ibis, 1904, p. 91) says that he found 

 what he took to be the 

 gristly part of slugs in the 

 stomachs of this species. 

 This is all I have come across 

 respecting the wild life of the 

 bird, but it is probable that 

 it feeds, like other species 

 of its genus, upon fruits, 

 berries, leaves, and insects, 

 that it utters its notes from 

 a dead branch or bush, and 

 it is certain that it must 

 nest in a hole in the branch 

 of a tree and lay white eggs. 

 An example of this species 

 was purchased for the Lon- 

 don Zoological Giardens in 

 July, 1884. It ie not men- 

 tioned by Russ in his 

 " Fremdlandischen Stuben- 

 vogel." 



In The Avicultural Maga- 

 zine for October, 1909, 

 Major Horsbrugh published 

 an account, illustrated by a 

 coloured plate, of Levail- 

 lant's Barbet (T. cafer), ol 

 which he brought home two 

 specimens. 



TOURACOUS (Musophagidce). 



It would seem .that the Hoatzin (Opisthocomus) is 

 the nearest relative to the Touracous, which are also 

 believed to be related to the Cuckoos and Colies. Huxley 

 considered the Hoatzin to approach more nearly to the 

 gallinaceous birds and pigeons than anything else ; but, 

 in eome respects, he recognised an approach to the 

 Touracoue. Garrod decided that the ancestor of the 

 Hoatzin branched off from.' the parent stem shortly before 

 the true Gallince first appeared, and about simul- 

 taneously with the independent pedigree of the Cucu- 

 lidce and MusopJiagidce. 



The Touracous are fairly large brightly-coloured fruit- 

 eating birds, confined to the Ethiopian Region; they 

 are arboreal in their habits, but can run rapidly upon 



