CHOTORHEA. 91 



1011. Chotorhea mystacophanes. The Gaudy Barbel. 



Bucco mystacophanos, Temm. PI. Col. iii, pi. 315 (1824). 



Bucco quadricolor, Eyton, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 105. 



Megalaima quadricolor, Blyth, Cat. p. 67. 



Chotorea mystacophanus, Horsf. fy M. Cat. ii, p. 641 ; Salvadori, 

 Ucc. Born. p. 34, pi. i ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 130. 



Megalflema mystacophanes, Marshall, Mon. Cap. p. 41, pi. 19 ; 

 Hume, S. F. ii, p. 472 ; id. Cat. no. 196 quat. ; Walden in Blyth' s 

 Birds Burm. p. 74 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi, pp. 152, 502. 



Cyanops mystacophanes, Shelley, Cat. B. M. xix, p. 72. 



Coloration. Male. Broad forehead golden yellow; vertex and 

 occiput, the latter narrowing behind, crimson, sometimes verging 

 on scarlet ; lores, chin, throat, and a patch on each side of the 

 fore neck the same ; a black supercnium from the lores, much 

 broader behind the eye ; a few feathers between the black super- 

 cilium and yellow forehead, as also the sides of the face below the 

 eye, and the fore neck verditer-blue ; a yellow malar spot on each 

 side at the base of the lower mandible ; a bluish tinge on the 

 cheeks farther back ; wing-feathers, except on the outer surface 

 above, brown with pale yellow inner borders ; under wing-coverts 

 also yellowish ; some primaries pale-edged outside near the ends ; 

 under surface of tail washed with blue ; all the rest of the plumage 

 grass-green, duller and sometimes yellower below ; ear-coverts 

 and sides of neck with a yellowish tinge ; feathers o hind neck 

 and sides of neck with brighter edges. 



Adult females are said to resemble males, but if so, they appear 

 very rarely to attain the adult plumage, only one out of 18 sexed 

 female skins in the British Museum having the coloration of the 

 adult male. In young males and in females generally the black 

 eyebrow is absent, the forehead is bluish green, and the chin and 

 throat are first green, then yellow. The scarlet patch on the 

 hind crown is present from a rather early period. The change 

 from the livery of the young to full plumage is very irregular in 

 different individuals, the same region not always acquiring the 

 adult coloration first. Salvadori has already questioned the as- 

 sumption of the adult male plumage by females of this species. 



Bill black (pale beneath in young birds) ; irides deep brown ; 

 orbital skin dark greenish or greyish brown ; legs and feet very 

 pale bluish or horny green. 



Length 9-25 ; tail 2-3 ; wing 3-9 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from gape 1'75. 



Distribution. The Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo, ex- 

 tending into the southern half of Tenasserim as far as the Henza 

 basin north of Tavoy. 



Habits, fyc. This Barbet is chiefly found in evergreen forests, 

 and is very noisy, incessantly uttering its trisyllabic cry, especially 

 in the evening after dusk, and sometimes on moonlight nights. 

 Davison, who furnishes the preceding notes, adds that he has 

 frequently seen this bird clinging to the stem of a tree and tapping 

 like a Woodpecker. 



