13 
MEGALOEMA ZEYLANICA 
(THE BROWN HEADED*BARBET) 
ADULT MALE AND FEMALE 
Length 9.5 to 10 Inches; wing 4.2 to 4.5; tall 2.5 to 2.7; tarsus 1.2; 
outer anterior toe and claw 1.15; posterior outer toe 1.1; bill to gape 1.6 
to 1.8. 
DISTRIBUTION 
This noisy well known bird, commonly called a Woodpecker or Woodcutter 
by the Eurasian population and many Europeans, is very abundant in most paris 
of the low country, except close to the sea shore or in large tracts of damp 
forest such as clothe much of the face of the Southern part of the Island. 
It Is likewise an inhabitant of the Kandyan Province up to an altitude of 
about 2500 or 3000 feet in the Western and Northern parts, and to about 4000 
feet in the drier district of Uva. Those parts in which it is numerous are 
the cultivated portions of the West and South-west, parts of the Eastern 
Province (in which It Is locally distributed), portions of tne flat forest 
. 
clad country lying between Lemastota and the South-east coast, and tne North 
east of the Island. It is found in the Vanni and throughout most of tne 
country lying Immediately to the North of Dambulla, wherever the jungle is 
of an open character. In the seven Korales the same may be said of it, and 
Mr Parker writes me that it is common about Uswewa. Mr Holdsworth does not 
record it from Aripu, but it avoids such dry scrubby districts on the sea¬ 
board, being similarly absent from the brushy country about Hambantotte. 
As regards the Central Province it Is not uncommon In Durabara and in the 
valleys of Hewahette, Maturatta, and other basins of the hill tributaries of 
the Mah aw el11ganga. In the glens or steep ravines intercepting the great 
expanse of hilly patinas between Fort Macdonald and Haputale it is likewise 
found, and is now and then seen at a considerable altitude on the path lead¬ 
ing up to Hakgalla. Near Sandarawella I have met with it at about 1400 
feet elevation. 
HABITS 
The Brown Headed Barbet inhabits compounds, open wooded country, dry jun¬ 
gle, and scanty forests, where fruit bearing trees are plentiful, on the 
seeds of which it principally feeds. 
There is perhaps no bird better known than this one is to sportsmen or 
any others who are Induced to visit or reside in the cultivated interior of 
