570 PICARIAN BIRDS 



forests. This is natural, as the bee is the same ; the bark-hive, Musinga, as it 

 is named, being simply fastened up to a tree, and left for the bees to come to. 

 The object the bird has in view is clearly the young bees. It will guide to nests 

 having no honey, and seems equally delighted if the comb containing the grubs 

 be torn out, when it is seen pecking at it." The little honey-guide (/. minor) is 

 only 6 inches in length. It is said to be of no repute as an honey-guide, but 

 it catches bees like a flycatcher. The white-eared honey-guide (/. sparmanni), 

 is one of the larger members of the genus, about 8 inches in length, of an ashy 

 brown colour above, whitish below, with a brownish shade on the throat. The 

 three outer tail-feathers have their bases white, and there is also some white on 

 the lower back and upper tail-coverts ; on the shoulder is a yellow band, formed 

 by some of the lesser wing-coverts. This species ii? found over the greater part of 

 Africa, from the Eastern Cape Colony to the Transvaal, and thence throughout 

 Eastern Africa to Abyssinia, and again occurring in Senegambia, so that it is an 

 inhabitant of the open portions of the continent, but does not occur in the forest- 

 regions of the West Coast. It is a favourite with the natives, who do not like to 

 see one killed. Mr. Buckley, during his journey to Matabililand, says " that the 

 birds were extremely pertinacious in following us, in order to conduct us to a bee's 

 nest, chattering incessantly until they gained their point." 



THE BARBETS. 

 Family CAPITONIDsE. 



This family occupies an intermediate position between the woodpeckers and 

 the toucans ; in many of their ways these birds being like the former, while some 

 of their number bear a remarkable resemblance to the toucans. In structure they 

 also have many points in common with these two families, the peculiar zygodactyle 

 foot being exactly like that of the woodpeckers and the other allied families. 

 The barbets have a tufted oil-gland, no blind appendages to the intestine, and 

 possess ten tail-feathers. They have little in common with the puff-birds, which 

 are also called barbets in many works on natural history. The barbets are found 

 in the tropical portions of both the Old and New Worlds, the latter being peculiar 

 to Central and South America. From Brazil and Bolivia up to Costa Rica the 

 American barbets range, but no species has yet been found in Guatemala or in 

 Mexico. In most of the Old World barbets the bill is toothed or ridged, but in the 

 American genus (Capito) the bill is smooth, not toothed, and has the ridge rounded. 

 In South America also occurs the singular genus Tetragonops, wherein the bill is 

 four-sided and the lower mandible widened at its tip, so as to form a sort of 

 cradle in which the end of the upper mandible rests. Two species of the genus 

 are known, one from Costa Rica (T. frantzii) and the other from Ecuador, the 

 latter being a brightly-coloured bird, named T. rhamphastinus, from the similarity 

 of its colours to that of a toucan. Barbets are found in the tropical portions 

 of Africa and Asia, but do not extend beyond the Malaysian Islands. Of the 

 seventeen genera recorded from the Old World, Africa claims ten and the Indian 

 region the other seven. 



