CATALOGUE. 
639 
bear upon his bill, whicb he used as a pickaxe, till the house re- 
sounded with his rapid and well-aimed blows. On being checked 
from exercising his ingenuity in this manner, he became sulky, and 
refused to eat, or offer his call of recognition when I approached 
him ; in a day or two, however, he apparently thought better of the 
matter, resumed his labours upon another spot, and fed as voraci- 
ously as ever, devouring huge slices of bananas, jungle-fruits, the 
bodies of any small birds I skinned, &c. I hoped he would have 
lived long with me, but found him dead one morning at the bottom 
of his cage ; and as he was fat and well-favoured, I presume he died 
a victim to the solitary system. 
The species. builds in hollow trees, laying three or four pure white, 
but very shining eggs. Axis 1 in. 1 line, diameter 11 lines. The 
natives all affirm that the birds hollow out their own nest-hole. One 
I saw was in an unsound tree, the nest slightly formed of a few bents 
of dry grass." — (E. L. Layard.) 
926. MEGALAIMA VI BID IS, Gmelin (Sp. 
Bucco viridis, Gmelin, S. JST. I. p. 408. (PZ. Unl 870.) 
Lath., Hist, of B. III. p. 228. Temm., Text, de PI. 
Col. Jerdon, Madr. Journ. XI. p. 217; XIII. 
pt. 2, p. 140 ; III. Ind. Orn. t. 26. Blyth, J. A. S. 
JBeng. XV. p. 13. 
Megalaima viridis, G. B. Gray, Gen. of B. II. p. 429 
{excl. syn.). Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. Beng.p. 67. 
Bonap., C. G. Av. p. 144. 
Bucco caniceps, apud Sykes, P. Z. S. (1832), p. 97. 
The Green Barbet, Latham. 
A. h. c. Dukhun. Presented by Colonel Sykes. 
" Inhabits the Indian peninsula, and generally found in the woods 
on the Neilgherries, but also here and there in the forests of Mala- 
bar, chiefly in the higher portions of the Ghauts. Its note is hardly 
so loud as its more common congener of the Malabar forests, viz. 
M. caniceps. Its flight, as indeed is that of all the species, is rapid, 
direct, and somewhat 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 have occasionally heard the call of a species of 
this genus by moonlight." — (Jerdon.) 
" Found only in the dense woods of the Ghauts. Its note is quite 
