358 
Mr. BlytlPs Commentary 
shot a Wryneck, in India, in the act of ascending the bole of a 
tree Woodpecker-fashion. I have tried the same experiment 
with Barbets, both with a winged old bird and young birds 
about ready to fly; and they have just as much notion of climbing 
as a Sparrow has, neither more nor less. It is true that they 
breed in the holes of trees, and so also do the Toucans; and I 
have seen one fly direct to its nest-hole, as a Titmouse would 
do, but never clinging to the bark. Of Xantholcema indica, Mr. 
Layard remarks—“ Like the other species, it breeds in holes, 
and I have seen it in the act of excavating them in decaying 
portions of living trees ” (Ann. Mag. N. H. 1854, xiii. p. 448). 
Dr. Jerdon remarks—“I never saw any of these Barbets 
climbing, like a Woodpecker, nor heard them tapping, that I 
am aware of.” They are common birds, sometimes not at all 
shy, and are at any time under the observation of a natu¬ 
ralist in India as familiarly as a Chaffinch is here; and had 
they climbing-propensities, such could not escape the notice of 
habitual observers; moreover they feed on fruit and berries, and 
not upon insects and wood-boring larvse, and have therefore no 
business to traverse the boles and larger branches of trees like a 
Woodpecker or Nuthatch. They are anything but “omnivo¬ 
rous ” as Mr. Gould intimates in his ‘ Handbook to the Birds of 
Australia ’ (i. p. 2). I have kept them for months in captivity, 
and have invariably found them to refuse insect-food, although, 
in a captive state, Mr. Layard found one to exhibit a carnivorous 
and predatory propensity, which I should say was most unusual; 
but this again is in accordance with their affinity to the Toucans. 
A luteino variety of Xantholcema indica (the Bucco luteus of 
Lesson) is figured by DesMurs (Icon. Orn. pi. 21). I have 
seen similar luteino varieties (corresponding to albinos) in vari¬ 
ous other green birds, as Parrots, Bee-eaters, fruit-eating 
Pigeons, &c. The yellow cage Canary-bird is a familiar instance 
of the kind, which has the pink eyes of an ordinary albino. 
192. Megamma hodgsoni, Bonap. 
M. lineata, auct., of North-eastern India and the Indo- 
Chinese countries generally, as far at least as Cambogia, where 
the species is mistaken by Prof. Schlcgel for the Javan M. 
