128 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



They begin practising even as nestlings, and are 

 certainly untiring songsters according to their lights, 

 In disposition they are gloomy and unsociable, but not 

 ferocious ; that is, they are hard biters, but do not go out 

 of their way for a fight. Barbets are found all round the 

 world in most warm climates, but not in the Australian 

 region. The huge-billed Toucans of America are closely 

 related to the Barbets, but are not found in India, the 

 birds often so called there being Hornbills, which are a 

 distinct family altogether, confined to the Old World, 



In confinement Barbets live very well, and are orna- 

 mental in an aviary ; if reared from the nest they 

 become very tame, and they are easy to manage, as they 

 can be fed on fruit from the first, and so give less trouble 

 than most young birds. They are gross feeders, and eat 

 a great deal of food, so that the more fruit they get, the 

 better, as fruit is not so fattening as satoo or sop. They 

 must not as a rule be shut up closely together, as they 

 will fight to the death in such a case, and it is as well 

 not to have more than a pair of each kind even in an 

 aviary. 



THE COPPERSMITH OR CRIMSON-BREASTED BARBET 

 (Xantholaema haematocephala) called Tambayat in Hindu- 

 stani, and Chota bussunt in Bengal, is a very well- 

 known garden bird all over the Empire, but does not 

 go any distance up the hills. Outside our limits 

 it ranges east as far as the Philippines, so that, 

 although it is one of the smallest of our Barbets, it 

 extends over a very wide territory. Common as it is in 

 Calcutta, where one may see it even in the trees lining 



