57° 
PICARIAN BIRDS 
forests. This is natural, as the bee is the same; the bark-hive, Musinga, as it 
is named, being simply fastened up to a tree, and left for the bees to come to. 
The object the bird has in view is clearly the young bees. It will guide to nests 
having no honey, and seems equally delighted if the comb containing the grubs 
be torn out, when it is seen pecking at it.” The little honey-guide (/. minor) is 
only 6 inches in length. It is said to be of no repute as an honey-guide, but 
it catches bees like a flycatcher. The white-eared honey-guide (I. sparmanni), 
is one of the larger members of the genus, about 8 inches in length, of an ashy 
brown colour above, whitish below, with a brownish shade on the throat. The 
three outer tail-feathers have their bases white, and there is also some white on 
the lower back and upper tail-coverts; on the shoulder is a yellow band, formed 
by some of the lesser wing-coverts. This species is found over the greater part of 
Africa, from the Eastern Cape Colony to the Transvaal, and thence throughout 
Eastern Africa to Abyssinia, and again occurring in Senegambia, so that it is an 
inhabitant of the open portions of the continent, but does not occur in the forest- 
regions of the West Coast. It is a favourite with the natives, who do not like to 
see one killed. Mr. Buckley, during his journey to Matabililand, says “ that the 
birds were extremely pertinacious in following us, in order to conduct us to a bee’s 
nest, chattering incessantly until they gained their point.” 
The Barbets. 
Family CAPITONIDJE. 
This family occupies an intermediate position between the woodpeckers and 
the toucans; in many of their ways these birds being like the former, while some 
of their number bear a remarkable resemblance to the toucans. In structure they 
also have many points in common with these two families, the peculiar zygodactyle 
foot being exactly like that of the woodpeckers and the other allied families. 
The barbets have a tufted oil-gland, no blind appendages to the intestine, and 
possess ten tail-feathers. They have little in common with the puff-birds, which 
are also called barbets in many works on natural history. The barbets are found 
in the tropical portions of both the Old and New Worlds, the latter being peculiar 
to Central and South America. From Brazil and Bolivia up to Costa Rica the 
American barbets range, but no species has yet been found in Guatemala or in 
Mexico. In most of the Old World barbets the bill is toothed or ridged, but in the 
American genus ( Capito ) the bill is smooth, not toothed, and has the ridge rounded. 
In South America also occurs the singular genus Tetragonops, wherein the bill is 
four-sided and the lower mandible widened at its tip, so as to form a sort of 
cradle in which the end of the upper mandible rests. Two species of the genus 
are known, one from Costa Rica (T. frantzii) and the other from Ecuador, the 
latter being a brightly-coloured bird, named T. rhamphastinus, from the similarity 
of its colours to that of a toucan. Barbets are found in the tropical portions 
of Africa and Asia, but do not extend beyond the Malaysian Islands. Of the 
seventeen genera recorded from the Old World, Africa claims ten and the Indian 
region the other seven. 
