CA.LOEHAMPHUS. 83 



b 3 . Head and neck with bright colours. 



a 4 . Oilmen longer than tarsus .... CHOTORHEA, p. 90. 



b*. Culmen not longer than tarsus . . CYANOPS, p. 92. 



b". 2nd primary longer than 8th XANTHOL^EMA, p. 97. 



The Barbets are mainly fruit-eating birds. In the stomachs of 

 the African species that I examined in Abyssinia I found insects 

 in considerable quantities; but although some of the Indian species 

 are occasionally insectivorous, none of them, with the exception of 

 Calorhamphus, feed much on insect food. Indian species, with 

 the same exception, have a peculiar call of one, two, or three 

 syllables, repeated in a singularly monotonous manner for several 

 minutes, then ceasing for a time, and recommencing after an 

 interval. The calls of two or more birds are frequently heard 

 together, the pitch of each bird's note being different. It is often 

 very difficult to tell in which direction precisely a bird is calling, and 

 both the direction and distance appear to vary as the bird turns 

 its head in different ways. Each bird, in the act of calling, nods 

 its head in a peculiar manner. All Barbets, so far as is known, 

 excavate nest-holes in trees not unlike those made by Wood- 

 peckers ; the entrance small, generally very well rounded and neatly 

 bevelled, and the inside larger and well smoothed. The eggs, which 

 are white but not so glossy as those of Woodpeckers, are laid on 

 the bare wood, or on a few chips. When making their nest-holes 

 these birds tap to detach the wood, but the action is much slower 

 than that of Woodpeckers. 



As a rule Barbets perch, and they do not, commonly at all 

 events, climb stems or branches as Woodpeckers do, but they 

 sometimes cling to a vertical tree. Their flight is undulating, 

 but strong and moderately rapid. 



In the plumage of all Indian species, except Calorhampfius hayi, 

 green predominates. The sexes are generally alike. 



Genus CALORHAMPHUS, Lesson, 1839. 



Bill stout, culmen much curved, sharply angulate, upper 

 mandible not swollen at the base ; nostrils partly overhung, but 

 not concealed, by feathers and a few bristles ; no bristles on chin ; 

 feathers of crown with coarse shafts, of which the ends are pro- 

 longed as free bristles. Wings rounded, tail slightly rounded. 

 Sexes alike except in the colour of the bill. 



A genus of two small dull-coloured species, brown above, 

 whitish below, confined to the Malay countries. One is found 

 in Southern Tenasserim. 



1005. Calorhamphus hayi. The Brown Barbet. 



Bucco hayi, Gray, Zool. Misc. p. 33 (1831). 



Megalorhynchus hayii, Blyth, Cat. p. 69; Horsf. 8f M. Cat. ii,. 

 p. 648. 



62 



