All Eifjlils Reserved. April, 1912. 
BIRD NOTES: 
THE 
JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 
The Green Fruitsuckers 
{Chloropsis) . 
Bv Wesley T. Page, F.Z.S., M.B.N.H.S. 
Of all the beautiful groups of birds India has given 
to us, there are few, if any, that surpass the Green Fruit- 
suckers (Bulbuls), either for beauty or interest, and perhaps 
in this respect, the commonest of them all (in this country) 
the Gold-fronted Fruitsucker (C. aurifrons) is deservedly the 
universal favourite. 
Jerdon in his " Birds of India " places these in the 
Family BEACHYPODID^ between the sub-families {Pyc- 
nonolincc and Irenincc, as I'hyllornithlnje, which consists of two 
genera Phyllomis and lor a. In this paper I shall refer to 
them under the generic names of Chloropsi's (Jard and 
Selby) and lara (Gmelin). Before proceeding liowever, I 
will quote Jerdon's descriptive paragraph on the sub-family 
rhyllornithinae,: — 
" Bill slightly lengthened, more or less cnrveil, of variable strength ; 
" wings moderate ; tail short ; tarsus and feet short, stout. Of a beautiful 
" grass green colour, more or less adorned with glistening blue patches on 
" the throat and shoulders of the wings. This is a small group of very pretty 
" birds found in India, Burnriti and Malayaiia. the species being, as usual, 
"rather locally distributed. Bonai)arte places this sub-family among the 
MelJipa(ji<l(i'. Gray also places PJi i/llornia [Chloror .tin — El).l at the end 
"of the Melliphar/idfr, and Blyth considers that it is allied to that family 
"(though not so nearly as are the Orioles^ ; but, in his catalogue, places it 
" and Jora in his sub-family Ph;/lloi->iitli//i(c of the Pyritnuotidd', with which 
"I entirely agree. Their general structure and habits are quite like those 
"of the short-footed Thrushes in general, and their geographic distribution 
" coincides with that of the present family. The birds, however, as a rule, 
"are more insectivorous than the true Bulbuls.— (Jerdon's Birds of India, 
Vol. II., page 96. 
The Green Bulbuls are certainly distinct from the 
true Bulbuls, and equally so from the Babblers, and may be 
fairly taken as the connecting link between the two — in my 
