ORD. INSESSORES. 



TRIBE— SCANSORES. 



GEN. BUCCO. 



PLATE XXVI. 



BUCCO VIBIDIS, 



GREEN BARBET. 



Synon— 5. Viridis, L., Jcrd. Cat. No. 217 in part— Xe Barlu vert, Buff— Ze Sarlude Mahe,'P.'E. 



The genus Bncco, as at present limited, is a well marked one, and appears confined to 

 India and the Eastern Isles. Green is the predominant colour, both of the upper and lower 

 surface, varied, according to the species, about the head and neck, with other colours, some- 

 times most brilliant. 



The present species belongs to a small group, of which there are at least three species in 

 continental India, distinguished by the plain brown and white markings of the head and 

 neck. They abound in all the large forests, where their loud voice Koturr, KHurr, Koiurr, 

 may be heard ringing through the woods for a vast distance, throughout most of the day. 

 They feed chiefly on fruit, also on insects; and, like parrots and woodpeckers, intermedi- 

 ate to which they appear to be, they breed in holes of trees, laying, I am informed, three 

 or four white eggs. They are almost always seen singly, a pair, however, being usually 

 not being far from each other. 



The species figured on the plate is chiefly found in the woods on the Neilgherries, but also 

 here and there in the forests of Malabar, chiefly in the higher portions of the Ghauts. Its 

 note is hardly so loud as that of its more common congener of the Malabar forests, viz. 

 B. Zeylanictis. Its flight, as indeed is that of all the species, is rapid, direct, and some- 

 what undulating. It perches generally on lofty branches of trees, and on a wood being 

 beaten for game, several of these may be seen winging their way over the tops of the trees 

 to a more secure spot. 



I suspect that the call of this bird, or of the B. Zeylankvs, was mistaken for that of 

 Nyciiornis Alherivni by the discoverer of that bird, as related in Jardine and Selby's III. 



