MEGALiEMA FLAVIERONS. 
213 
Distribution . — This Barbet has long been known as a peculiar Ceylon bird. Levaillant described it m Ins 
great work among the Barbets, from a specimen in the Paris Museum, and Cuvier afterwards gave it its Latin 
title of flavifrons. Its head-quarters in Ceylon are the hills of the Kandyan Province and those of the southern 
group lying in the Kolonna, Morowak, and Kukliul Korales, downwards from all of which it spreads into 
the low country and has there a somewhat peculiar distribution. It is very abundant throughout all the 
Kandyan Province, ranging up to the forest of the main range, but not nearly in such numbers as it inhabits 
the coffee-districts. I have met with it as high as the Kandapolla woods, 6400 feet, but not at Nuwara Elliya or 
on the Horton Plains, although it is found just beneath the latter, at the foot of the World sLnd precipice. 
In the coffee-districts of Rakwana and the Morowak Korale it is numerous, but it is far more abundant in the 
Singha-Raja forests of the Kukkul Korale. As regards its dispersion through the low country, commencing m 
the south, we find it in the Opate, Oodogamma, and other fine timber-forests on the banks of the Gmdurah, 
and in the dry season in the forest of Kottowe, near Galle. In the forest-region of the south-east I never met 
with it. In the Western Province it is common in some localities in Saffragam, and is mimerous in parts o 
the Pasdun Korale, whither it finds its way down from Kukkul Korale. It inhabits the hills stretching from 
Ambepussa to Avisawella, and thence spreads down the river to Kaduwella, and northwards to Mahara and 
Heneratgoda ; in the south-west of the Raygam Korale it is not uncommon, and is numerous about Ksesbawa 
and other places in the Hewagam Korale. It extends from the Ambokka range into the Seven Korales, m 
which I have found it on the western slopes of the Doolookanda hill ; but further out than this I was unable 
to trace it. I do not think it ranges much to the north of Dainbulla, or I should most likely have met 
with it on the slopes of the isolated mountain of Rittagalla. In the Eastern Province its distribution is equally 
local ; for it is met with in some forests near Kumberuw'ella, about 25 miles from Batticaloa, and also in the 
Friars-Hood forests, but thence through a wide expanse of forest-country to the foot of the Madulsima range 
it does not appear to be found. 
I observe that Layard (P. Z. S. 1873) is of opinion that it did not frequent the low country of the 
Western Province in his day, but that it has spread outwards of late years. I think, however, the above 
“ distribution ” will demonstrate to any one knowing the interior of Ceylon that its range is very peculiar, 
some districts coming in for a share of its patronage, while others adjacent to them are altogether passed over. 
Habits.-^ The voice of this bird is one of the chief ornithological characteristics of the Ceylon lulls; the 
notes which constitute it have somewhat the character of those of the larger bird, but differ chiefly in t e 
“ roll ” with which they begin ; they are commenced early in the morning, and continued for many hours, until 
the persistent Barbet, judging by the tone of his cries, becomes hoarse, and then there is a cessation, much to 
the relief of the wearied planter over whose bungalow the “ shoutcr ” has perhaps been calling to his mates 
away up at the forest’s margin for the past hour ! Mr. Bligh tells me that he observes a very perceptible 
decrease in this bird’s loquacity as soon as it has begun to breed, although it has, of course, been more than 
usually noisy during the season of courtship. It delights in perching on the top of a tree growing at the brink 
of some dizzy precipice, from which its note swells far and wide over the beautiful coffee-planted gorge beneath , 
but still more curious is the manner in which the monosyllabic sound quidk, quidk, ascends audibly from the 
edge of the patnas far beneath the bungalow, and falls on the ear as distinctly as if it were issuing from a tree 
close at hand. In the low country it is found chiefly in forest, but sometimes about paddy-field woods, as at 
Mahara, Kaduwella, Ambepussa, and other places ; in the timber-jungles of the south-west it is next to 
impossible to procure, as it keeps to the tops of the highest Hora- or Keena-trees, and would never be 
discovered were it not for its perpetual shouting. It is a gluttonous feeder, collecting in dozens among the 
branches of any tree in fruit, climbing intently about and wrenching off the berries with its powerful bill, at 
the same time letting much fall to the ground. In the Singha-Raja forest I foimd it feeding greedily on the 
berry of the Hang-tree ( Syzygmm caryophyllceum) . Towards evening, after digesting its morning food, the 
Yellow-fronted Barbet begins its clamour again, and after feeding becomes silent before dusk. It is noticeable 
to what a great extent these birds answer one another ; as soon as one commences its note, the refrain is taken 
up by another not far distant, and then by a third, and so on until the whole wood resounds with the not 
un melodious but rather wearying sounds. I have not unfrequently heard from my friends in the coffee-districts 
that the continuous cry of this bird near the bungalow of a sick person has a most wearisome effect. 
