IX 



BARBETS 



"Alone at his green forge 

 Toiled the loud coppersmith." 



The Light of Asia. 



Two kinds of barbets, the coppersmith, Xantholcema 

 hcematocephala, and the blue - throated species, 

 Cyanops asiatica, abound in suburban and out- 

 lying gardens, and the first may often be heard 

 and seen, and sometimes even nests, in trees at 

 the sides of crowded thoroughfares. Coppersmiths 

 are odd little birds, 1 and most fully characteristic 

 of the group to which they belong in their gaudy 

 colouring, harsh, dry plumage, wonderfully tough 

 skin, and insistent vociferation. During periods of 

 settled, sunny weather, the only thing that seems 

 effectually to check their desire to call is a certain 

 degree of cold ; but this is so influential that during 

 the course of the variable winter in Calcutta it may 

 safely be assumed that the temperature in the shade 

 stands at or over 70 F. on any day when their call 



1 Their length is somewhat greater than that of a common nuthatch, 

 but they are proportionately very stoutly built. 



105 



