lower mandible, tip of upper mandible black, extending more or less along the culinen ; 
naked orbital skin and eyelids blackish, smooth, irides deep dirty crimson (Hodgson) 
or red brown ( Hodgson ) legs dull greenish yellow, sometimes tinged with dirty grass green. 
Habitat, China ( Swinhoe ). Whole Himalayan Region, from Cashmere to Assam: 
Cashmere (Adams), Simla (Col. Tytler ), Nepal (Hodgson), Sikkim (Jerdon), Assam 
(Jerdon). 
This Barbet is the type of the genus Megalcema, and has been described and figured 
by most of the authorities on Asiatic ornithology. It is the largest of the whole family, 
and easily distinguishable by its peculiar colouring from the remaining species. In general 
form, and in the bill it closely resembles the Toucans. In habits it is solitary, frequenting 
the tops of high trees, occasionally descending to the ground ; its food consists of both 
fruits and insects ; it breeds in May, choosing a soft and decayed tree, in which it excavates 
a hole for itself after the manner of Wood-peckers, and deposits its eggs on the bare soft 
wood, without lining the hole with any foreign material. The eggs, three or four in 
number, are pure white ; oval in shape. The note is monotonous but musical, and very 
loud; it is well-known to travellers in the Himalayas, striking even the least observant, by 
its sudden contrast with the intense silence of the forests. Jerdon describes it as sounding 
like pio-jno-pio, while Hutton writes it hoo-hoo-hoo ; the former syllables, we think, give the 
best idea of it. Its flight is strong and vigorous, but undulating, resembling the flight of 
Gecinus squamatus , as would be inferred from its short wings and heavy body. In the 
young birds the colouring is duller than in the adult. We have shot them in very immature 
plumage in September ; in Murree and Simla they probably fly about the middle or end of 
June. The setaceous plumes, at the base of the rictal bristles, are more strongly developed 
than in the other Megalcemince , forming a close bunch of plumes over the nostrils, which 
they partially conceal. 
The following are taken from Mr. B. H. Hodgson’s valuable collection of manuscript 
notes on the ornithology of Nepal. 
M. virens. Inhabits the temperate region of Nepal from 4,000 to 10,000 feet 
elevation. It is common in the mountains, not gregarious, two or three being seen 
together at a time. It moves easily on the ground, devours ants and other insects, but 
chiefly inhabits trees, and feeds on fruits, builds in self-made holes in trunks of trees like 
a Wood-pecker, and lays three or four white eggs. The voice is very loud. It is usually 
met with in forests, but occasionally comes out into more open country where there is 
brushwood. On the 20tli of May, in a deep ravine descending from the heights of 
Slieeapoor Forest, I found the nest of this bird in the decayed trunk of a large tree, and got. 
