in ANIMAL LIFE IN THE TROPICAL FORESTS 297 



Africa, Asia, and Australia, no larger than sparrows, to the 

 pheasant-like ground cuckoo of Borneo, the Scythrops of the 

 Moluccas, which almost resembles a hornbill, the Rhamp- 

 hococcyx of Celebes with its richly -coloured bill, and the 

 Goliath cuckoo of Gilolo with its enormously long and ample 

 tail. 



Cuckoos, being invariably weak and defenceless birds, 

 conceal themselves as much as possible among foliage or 

 herbage ; and as a further protection, many of them have 

 acquired the coloration of rapacious or combative birds. In 

 several parts of the world cuckoos are coloured exactly like 

 hawks, while some of the small Malayan cuckoos closely 

 resemble the pugnacious drongo-shrikes. 



Trogons, Barlets, Toucans, and HornbUls 

 Many of the families of Picariae are confined to the tropical 

 forests, and are remarkable for their varied and beautiful 

 colouring. Such are the trogons of America, Africa, and 

 Malaya, whose dense puffy plumage exhibits the purest tints 

 of rosy-pink, yellow, and white, set off by black heads and a 

 golden-green or rich brown upper surface. Of more slender 

 forms, but hardly less brilliant in colour, are the jacamars and 

 motmots of America, with the bee-eaters and rollers of the 

 East, the latter exhibiting tints of pale-blue or verditer-green, 

 which are very unusual. The barbets are rather clumsy fruit- 

 eating birds, found in all the great tropical regions except that 

 of the Austro- Malay islands, and they exhibit a wonderful 

 variety as well as strange combinations of colours. Those of 

 Asia and Malaya are mostly green, but adorned about the 

 head and neck with patches of the most vivid reds, blues, and 

 yellows in endless combinations. The African species are 

 usually black or greenish-black, with masses of intense crim- 

 son, yellow, or white, mixed in various proportions and 

 patterns ; while the American species combine both styles of 

 colouring, but the tints are usually more delicate, and are 

 often more varied and more harmoniously interblended. In 

 the Messrs. Marshall's fine work x all the species are described 

 and figured, and few more instructive examples can be found 



1 A Monograph of the Capitonidm or Scansorial Barbels, by C. F. T. 

 Marshall and G. F. L. Marshall. 1871. 



