1432. Thereiceryx lineatus hodgsoni

(1432) Thereiceryx lineatus hodgsoni (Bonap.).
THE ASSAM LINEATED BARBET.
Thereiceryx lineatus hodgsoni. Fauna B. I., Birds, 2nd ed. vol. iv, p. 111.
The Assam Lineated Barbet occurs in the Outer Lower Himalayas from Kuman and Mussoorie to Eastern Assam, and thence through Northern Burma to the Northern Shan States. Birds from all these areas are quite typical hodgsoni, but in the Southern Chin Hills and Lower Chindwin the birds are quite indeterminable, while those from the Southern Shan State and Karenni are nearer the next form.
It is to be found in the plains all along the foot of the hills and also in the hills up to about 4,000 feet, though it is not common over 3,000. West of Northern Bihar and Assam it seems to occur but rarely in the plains, but I have recently heard of it breeding below the Oudh Terai.
It is equally a bird of the forest and of cultivated and open country near forest, but is nowhere the familiar village bird that the Green Barbet is. Its breeding habits are, however, very much the same as those of that bird. One curious feature of its nesting which I have noticed is its habit of sometimes malting the entrance to its nest-hole on the upper surface of large branches but, when so made, they are always more or less protected from rain by dense over¬hanging foliage or by other boughs. Nearly all the nests I have found have been between 6 and 16 feet from the ground but, occasionally, they may be found at 30 or even 40 feet from it. The entrance is large, sometimes as much as inches across, while the tunnel may be anything from 2 to 20 inches in length. If cut into rotten timber the chamber may be any size, but if the hole is drilled in fairly sound wood it is generally about 7 inches deep by nearly 6 wide.
The breeding season is from the end of March to the middle of June. In Assam April and May are equally popular, but in Kuman on the West and Northern Burma on the East most eggs are laid in the first half of April,
The number of eggs laid varies from two to four.
One hundred eggs, from among which all eggs from doubtful areas have been excluded, average 32.0 x 22.9 mm. : maxima 33.1 x 23.2 and 31.6 x 24.8 mm. ; minima 27.0 x 21.3 and 27.2 x 19.5 mm.
I have repeatedly caught the male bird on the eggs, and Cripps also caught a male on its eggs in Sylhet, so this sex undoubtedly shares in incubation, as also in the work of drilling. The time taken for this varies according to the condition of the tree chosen, but is much shorter than one would have expected. In fairly sound wood the whole business of drilling entrance, tunnel and chamber is completed in about a week while, in rotten wood, three or four days suffice for the purpose.
The birds work very hard for three or four hours at a time, relieving one another at intervals of ten to twenty minutes.
I cannot be absolutely sure, but I think incubation takes fourteen to fifteen days and the fledgling period twenty-four days.