THE COPPERSMITH. 75 



confined to India and Burma, though it ranges higher up 

 the hills than the smoll species. It is blessed with a better 

 digestion and temper than Alexander, and will assimilate 

 pea-meal brose successfully and stand crowding ; and so 

 it gets frequently caged and sent to Europe. In fact a 

 very tame bird of this kind, which lived for years at the 

 London Zoo, was the first barbet I ever saw alive, and 

 every now and then it turns up in a dealer's shop or a bird 

 show. It is true that its " song of colour " pitched as it 

 is in brilliant red, blue, and green, rises to a shriek, and 

 that its triple call of "Jcuturruk" is about three times as 

 monotonous as Alexander's foundry- work, so that its 

 popularity as a cage bird is never likely to be wide. Never- 

 theless I must confess to a great liking for barbefcs ; 

 their form, if not beautiful, is quaint, and their colouring 

 gorgeous, if a little barbaric. And as to the noise they 

 make, it is at least constant and consistent, and has not 

 the exasperating quality of intermittence which is so 

 annoying in some feathered vocalists, the domestic fowl 

 for instance. The sturdy smith has always been a popular 

 character, and I hope such may always be the case with 

 his fellow artisan in feathers. 



