Ill 
ANIMAL LIFE IN THE TROPICAL FORESTS 
297 
Africa, Asia, and Australia, no larger than sparrows, to the 
pheasant-like ground cuckoo of Borneo, the Scythrops of the 
Moluccas, which almost resembles a hornbill, the Rhamp- 
hococcyx of Celebes with its richly -coloured bill, and the 
Goliath cuckoo of Gilolo with its enormously long and ample 
tail. 
Cuckoos, being invariably weak and defenceless birds, 
conceal themselves as much as possible among foliage or 
herbage ; and as a further protection, many of them have 
acquired the coloration of rapacious or combative birds. In 
several parts of the world cuckoos are coloured exactly like 
hawks, while some of the small Malayan cuckoos closely 
resemble the pugnacious drongo-shrikes. 
Trogons, Barbels, Toucans, and Hornbills 
Many of the families of Picarise are confined to the tropical 
forests, and are remarkable for their varied and beautiful 
colouring. Such are the trogons of America, Africa, and 
Malaya, whose dense puffy plumage exhibits the purest tints 
of rosy-pink, yellow, and white, set off by black heads and a 
golden-green or rich brown upper surface. Of more slender 
forms, but hardly less brilliant in colour, are the jacamars and 
motmots of America, with the bee-eaters and rollers of the 
East, the latter exhibiting tints of pale-blue or verditer-green, 
which are very unusual. The barbets are rather clumsy fruit- 
eating birds, found in all the great tropical regions except that 
of the Austro -Malay islands, and they exhibit a wonderful 
variety as well as strange combinations of colours. Those of 
Asia and Malaya are mostly green, but adorned about the 
head and neck with patches of the most vivid reds, blues, and 
yellows in endless combinations. The African species are 
usually black or greenish-black, with masses of intense crim- 
son, yellow, or white, mixed in various proportions and 
patterns ; while the American species combine both styles of 
colouring, but the tints are usually more delicate, and are 
often more varied and more harmoniously interblended. In 
the Messrs. Marshall’s fine work 1 all the species are described 
and figured, and few more instructive examples can be found 
1 A Monograph of the CapUonidm or Scansorial Barbets , by C. F. T. 
Marshall and G, F. L. Marshall. 1 871. 
