BARBETS 107 



positions. The caverns of their blue - throated 

 relatives are particularly tempting to them, and 

 they are always on the outlook for chances of 

 appropriating them ; the fact being so well recog- 

 nised by the proper owners as to render them very 

 intolerant of the neighbourhood of coppersmiths 

 whilst excavating or occupying a burrow. Various 

 other kinds of birds that nest in hollows also look 

 upon them with great suspicion and indignantly 

 drive them away whenever they come prying about 

 too closely. A pair once fixed on the stump of a 

 fallen bough on a Poinciana-tree close to my house 

 as a suitable place for a nest, and set about 

 excavating vigorously in it. The progress of 

 their work was, however, seriously retarded for 

 some time by a pair of dayals, Copsychus saularis, 

 who were already housed in a natural hollow a 

 little higher up in the tree. At the outset the 

 barbets could hardly manage to do anything, as, 

 whenever they came in and began to dig, they 

 were forthwith assaulted and driven away. Perse- 

 verance, however, eventually triumphed, and one 

 of the birds managed to get in at a time when 

 neither of the dayals was at home. After a little 

 envious inspection of their cave, it set steadily to 

 work on the stump, clinging to the bark with its 

 fat, pink feet, and hammering and picking away 

 so energetically that the strokes were quite audible 

 at a considerable distance, and were soon accom- 



