XANTHOL^EMA. 99 



The young is duller in colour and wants the crimson and black 

 on the head. 



Bill black ; irides dark hazel ; nude orbital skin dull crimson ; 

 feet coral-red ; claws black (Jerdon}. 



Length about 6'5; tail 1-5; wing 3'2; tarsus *8; bill from 

 gape -9. 



Distribution. Common throughout the greater part of the 

 Empire, with the exception of the Himalayas and the higher ranges 

 of the Peninsula and Burma. Eare in the Punjab, Sind, and Cutch, 

 in Southern Malabar (south of Eatnagiri), and in the damper forests 

 of Ceylon, in Assam, the hill-tracts south of the Assam Valley, and 

 in Southern Tenasserim. This bird is only found in the valleys 

 of the outer Himalayas up to 2000 or 3000 feet. It ranges to the 

 Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and the Philippines. 



Habits, 6fc. One of the commonest and most familiar of Indian 

 birds, the " Coppersmith " may be found in almost every garden, 

 mango-grove or banyan tree, and its monotonous note took, took, 

 took, resembling the tap of a hammer on metal, repeated at short 

 regular intervals, is well known to most residents in the country. 

 This bird, like other Indian Barbets, lives on fruit, but it takes 

 insects occasionally. Captain Bulger (Ibis, 1863, p. 218) saw it 

 feeding on flying termites. It breeds in Northern India in March, 

 April, and May, earlier farther south, and in Ceylon from January 

 to June, excavating a nest-hole of the usual kind and laying 

 usually 3 or 4 eggs, which are white, fragile, with little or no gloss, 

 and measure about '99 by *69. 



1020. Xantholaema malaharica. The Crimson-throated 

 Barbet. 



Bucco malabaricus, Blyth, J. A. S. B.xvi, pp. 386, 465 (1847). 

 Megalaima malabarica, Blyth, Cat. App. p. 336 ; Fairbank, S. F. iv, 



p. 255 ; Vidal, S. F. ix, p. 54. 

 Xantholaema malabarica, Horsf. fy M. Cat. ii, p. 647 ; Jerdon, B. I. 



i, p. 317; Marshall, Mon. 'Cap. p. Ill, pi. 45; Bourdillon, S. F. 



iv, p. 392 ; Hume, Cat. no. 198 ; Butler, S. F. ix, p. 387 ; Davison, 



S. F. x, p. 358; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 123; Shelley, Cat. B. M. 



xix, p. 95 ; Gates in Humes N. fy E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 332 ; Davidson, 



Jour. Bomb. N. H. Soc. vi, p. 336. 



Coloration. Crown and upper parts, wings and tail as in 

 X. hcematocephala, except that the general colour is grass-green. 

 The band above and that below the eye, a spot at the base of the 

 lower mandible on each side, chin, throat, and fore neck crimson, 

 the malar and gular areas fringed with golden yellow ; the black of 

 the vertex runs down on each side behind the eye and the sub- 

 ocular crimson patch but does not extend to the malar area ; sides 

 of head behind the black, and area between ear-coverts and throat, 

 light greyish blue, lower parts from neck pale green, the feathers 

 of the flanks darker green near the shafts. 



Bill black; irides red-brown; legs red (Jerdon}. 



Length 6'25 ; tail 1-5 ; wing 3-2 ; tarsus -8 ; bill from gape -85. 



H2 



