MEGAL.EMA FLAVIFRONS. 213 



Distribution. — This Barbet has long been known as a peculiar Ceylon bird. Levaillant described it in his 

 great work among the Bai - bets, from a specimen in the Paris Museum, and Cuvier afterwards gave it its Latin 

 title oiflavifrons. Its head-quarters in Ceylon are the hills of the Kandyan Province and those of the southern 

 group lying in the Kolonna, Morowak, and Kukkul Korales, downwards from all of which it spreads into 

 the low country and has there a somewhat peculiar distribution. It is very abundant throughout all the 

 Kandyan Province, ranging up to the forest of the main range, but not nearly in such numbers as it inhabits 

 the coffee-districts. I have met with it as high as the Kandapolla woods, 6400 feet, but not at Nuwara Elliyaor 

 on the Horton Plains, although it is found just beneath the latter, at the foot of the "World's End " precipice. 

 In the coffee-districts of Rakwana and the Morowak Korale it is numerous, but it is far more abundant in the 

 Singha-Raja forests of the Kukkul Korale. As regards its dispersion through the low country, commencing in 

 the south, we find it in the Opate, Oodogamma, and other fine timber-forests on the banks of the Gindurah, 

 and in the dry season in the forest of Kottowe, near Galle. In the forest-region of the south-east I never met 

 with it. In the Western Province it is common in some localities in Saffragam, and is numerous in parts of 

 the Pasdun Korale, whither it finds its way clown from Kukkul Korale. It inhabits the hills stretching from 

 Ambepussa to Avisawella, and thence spreads down the river to Kaduwella, and northwards to Mahara and 

 Heneratgoda ; in the south-west of the Raygarn Korale it is not uncommon, and is numerous about Ksesbawa 

 and other places in the Hewagam Korale. It extends from the Ambokka range into the Seven Korales, in 

 which I have found it on the western slopes of the Doolookanda hill ; but further out than this I was unable 

 to trace it. I do not think it ranges much to the north of Dambulla, or I should most likely have met 

 with it on the slopes of the isolated mountain of Rittagalla. In the Eastern Province its distribution is equally 

 local ; for it is met with in some forests near Kumberuwella, about 25 miles from Batticaloa, and also in the 

 Friars-Hood forests, but thence through a wide expanse of forest-country to the foot of the Madulsima range 

 it does not appear to be found. 



I observe that Layard (P. Z. S. 1873) is of opinion that it did not frequent the low country of the 

 Western Province in his day, but that it has spread outwards of late years. I think, however, the above 

 " distribution " will demonstrate to any one knowing the interior of Ceylon that its range is very peculiar, 

 some districts coming in for a share of its patronage, while others adjacent to them are altogether passed over. 



Habits. — The voice of this bird is one of the chief ornithological characteristics of the Ceylon hills ; the 

 notes which constitute it have somewhat the character of those of the larger bird, but differ chiefly in the 

 " roll " with which they begin ; they are commenced early in the morning, and continued for many hours, until 

 the persistent Barbet, judging by the tone of his cries, becomes hoarse, and then there is a cessation, much to 

 the relief of the wearied planter over whose bungalow the " shouter " has perhaps been calling to his mates 

 away up at the forest's margin for the past hour ! Mr. Bligh tells me that he observes a very perceptible 

 decrease in this bird's loquacity as soon as it has begun to breed, although it has, of course, been more than 

 usually noisy during the season of courtship. It delights in perching on the top of a tree growing at the brink 

 of some dizzy precipice, from which its note swells far and wide over the beautiful coffee-planted gorge beneath ; 

 but still more curious is the manner in which the monosyllabic sound quiok, quiok, ascends audibly from the 

 edge of the patnas far beneath the bungalow, and falls on the ear as distinctly as if it were issuing from a tree 

 close at hand. In the low country it is found chiefly in forest, but sometimes about paddy-field woods, as at 

 Mahara, Kaduwella, Ambepussa, and other places ; in the timber-jungles of the south-west it is next to 

 impossible to procure, as it keeps to the tops of the highest Hora- or Keena-trees, and would never be 

 discovered were it not for its perpetual shouting. It is a gluttonous feeder, collecting in dozens among the 

 branches of any tree in fruit, climbing intently about and wrenching off the berries with its powerful bill, at 

 the same time letting much fall to the ground. In the Singha-Raja forest I found it feeding greedily on the 

 berry of the Dang-tree {Syzygium caryophyllceum) . Towards evening, after digesting its morning food, the 

 Yellow-fronted Barbet begins its clamour again, and after feeding becomes silent before dusk. It is noticeable 

 to what a great extent these birds answer one another ; as soon as one commences its note, the refrain is taken 

 up by another not far distant, and then by a third, and so on until the whole wood resounds with the not 

 immelodious but rather wearying sounds. I have not unfrequently heard from my friends in the coffee-districts 

 that the continuous cry of this bird near the bungalow of a sick person has a most wearisome effect. 



