The Blue-faced Barbet is common at the foot of the Himalayas in the wooded vaUeys, 
but does not occur in the plains below, nor even in the level parts of the "Doons," or tracts 
of country which separate the Himalayas from the Sewalik range. It is essentially a forest- 
loving bird and keeps to the tops of the trees. Though found in large numbers in certain 
localities, they cannot be called gregarious birds. They are tolerably easy of approach. 
During the hot hours of the day, the Barbets usually sit motionless on the topmost boughs 
conceakd among the foliage, which corresponds so nearly in hue to the general colour of their 
plumage, that it is difficult to detect them, unless their presence is betrayed, as it usually 
is, by their sonorous cry, resembling the syllables " rok-a-rojr which they utter from time to 
time. The note is loud and startling, but musical, and well in harmony with the wild 
nature of the surrounding scenery. 
These Barbets seem to have a peculiarly local distribution, especially at the western 
extremity of their range. They are common along the valleys of the Jumna and its affluents, 
where the former emerges from the mountains, but Col. Tytler, in his diary of a march from 
Mussoorrie to Simla, mentions that this was the only place where he found them, and in 
this our observations agree with his. The gorge of the J umna and the lower ranges of the 
Kumaon hills, are the only localities from which we have ourselves obtained it. We found 
them in great numbers at the picturesque village of Kalsi, on the road from Saharunpoor 
to Deobund and Chukrata. The village is built upon a small plateau, on a low cM over- 
hanging the Umlawa, a rocky mountain torrent, about two miles above its junction with the 
Jumna, and quite surrounded by lofty mountains, the windings of the valley shutting out 
the view of the open country only three miles distant. The sides of the mountains there 
are clothed with dense forests of trees, brushwood and flowering shrubs, the resort of birds 
more numerous and more varied than in any other spot we have visited, and a most charming 
and attractive place to the lover of nature. An extensive grove of wide spreading mango 
trees several hundreds of years old, stretches along two sides of the viUage, and borders the 
little extent of level grass land which serves as an encamping ground for the mountaineers, 
who bring their scanty merchandize from the villages scattered along the Umlawa Pass to 
exchange with the wealthier inhabitants of the plains. The wood of the mango trees is soft, 
as well as the shade refreshing, especially in the old and partially decaying boughs, and the 
facility this aftbrds for excavating the hollows for their nests, and the concealment offered 
by the dense and evergreen foliage, makes groves of this description a favorite place of resort 
for Barbets, as well as for weary travellers escaping from the noonday sun. 
In the Kalsi Grove the Blue-faced Barbets breed freely. Several of their nests were 
