Barbets and Honey-guides 581 



ous in the Ethiopian region, which boasts the presence of eleven of the twenty-one 

 genera and over eighty of the hundred and forty species; the Oriental regions 

 lay claim to eight genera, while only two genera and eighteen species find a home 

 in the American tropics. The manner in vhich this distribution w r as brought 

 about is unknown, as no fossil forms have been discovered, but it was doubtless 

 similar to that suggested for the Trogons. 



One of the most interesting of the African species is the Little Tinker Barbel: 

 (Barbatula pusilla), which belongs to that section of the group in which the bill 

 is without a tooth. Only four and a half inches in length, it has the upper plumage 

 black, variegated longitudinally with sulphur-yellow, the top of the head being 

 bright red and the front of the head 

 with a narrow black band, while the 

 wings and tail are earth-brown, the 

 coverts more or less bordered with 

 golden yellow; the under surface is 

 greenish yellow, and the throat and 

 upper and under tail-coverts are 

 lemon- or sulphur- yellow. "The 

 note of this curious little bird," 

 says Mr. Ayres, " so much resembles 

 the tapping of a hammer on an anvil, 

 that having that peculiar metallic ring, 

 it is called in Natal the Tinker Bird. 

 It is silent during the winter months, 

 commencing its monotonous cry in the 

 spring, and continuing it throughout 

 the summer. They are numerous, 

 but not easily seen, in consequence of 



FlG. 172. Toucan-Barbet. 

 phastinus. 



Semnornis rham- 



their small size, and their habit of sit- 

 ting quietly on the tops of thick, bushy 

 trees. When in search of food, they climb and creep about the thick foliage of 

 trees. They inhabit the coast bush, being seldom found ten miles inland." 



The species selected for illustration is the Toucan-Barbet (Semnornis rham- 

 phastinus] of Ecuador. 



The Honey-guides (Subfamily IndicatorincE). The curious little birds, 

 known as Honey-guides, take their common name from their well-known 

 habit of directing attention to the nests of bees. They are small brownish 

 or blackish birds, the plumage often enlivened with yellow and white, 

 ranging in length from four and a half to a little over seven inches. As 

 above stated, they were long supposed to be related to the Cuckoos, which they 

 resemble in the form of the feet as well as in nesting habits, but they are now 

 known to be much more closely allied to the Barbets and Woodpeckers. They 

 have stout, rather Finch-like bills, wings with nine primaries, and tails of twelve, 

 or in one genus of ten, feathers, the outer pair being small as in Woodpeckers. 

 They are comprised in three genera and eighteen species, all, with the exception of 



