vi CAPITONIDAE 449 



throughout the day or on moonlight nights. The latter cry is 

 variously syllabled kuttooruk, tok-tok, or poo-poo-poop, while its 

 likeness to the sound of striking metal has given the name of 

 " Copper-smith," " Tinker-bird," and " Iron-smith " to Xantholaema 

 haematocephala, Barbatula, pusilla, and Cyanops faber. While 

 uttering their protracted notes Barbets often move their heads 

 from side to side, and certain American species jerk their tails 

 over their backs like Toucans. The food consists of fruits of every 

 sort, buds and petals of flowers, and even green bark, or in many 

 cases almost entirely of insects ; in captivity pieces of meat or 

 small birds seem acceptable, the latter being usually battered 

 upon some hard substance before being swallowed. When feeding 

 on trees these birds are so noiseless that the falling berries alone 

 betray their presence, while they quit the feast with great reluct- 

 ance. They cut neat circular nesting-holes, which turn down- 

 wards and widen out below, in soft or decaying wood, generally 

 on the under side of a branch ; and lay three, four, or even five 

 eggs, oval, thin-shelled, white and somewhat shining, on a few 

 chips or sometimes other substances. A week or two may be 

 occupied in excavating the cavity, while it is a moot question 

 whether the tapping that goes on in spring is made in finding 

 suitable breeding quarters or in obtaining insects. Von Heuglin 

 saw two borings in banks. The young accompany their parents 

 for a considerable time. Barbets do not thrive well as cage- birds. 

 The range extends throughout Tropical Asia, Africa, and 

 America, and even slightly beyond those bounds in the two 

 former ; but America possesses only the large genus Capita and the 

 two species of Tetragonops, whereas the other regions divide the 

 remaining groups fairly evenly between them. Captain Shelley 1 

 admits nineteen genera and a hundred and ten species. The 

 former are difficult to diagnose, and depend largely on colour ; of 

 the latter the subjoined are merely a few of the most typical or 

 remarkable forms. Pogonorhynchus (including Eryfhrobucco and 

 Melanobucco) and Tricholaema, including respectively some fifteen 

 and ten species, are exclusively African groups, noticeable for 

 the long, black bristles before the eye and below the beak. P. 

 dulius of West Africa has bluish-black upper parts, with a little 

 crimson on the wing-coverts and a white dorsal patch ; the 

 cheeks and ear-coverts are crimson, separated by a black line; 



1 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. 1891, pp. 13-121. 

 VOL. IX 2 G 



