Fauna of India (Birds)  vol iii 1895 - by W. T. Blanford

Genus CHOTORHEA, Bonap., 1854.

To this genus belong six Malay Barbets distinguished as a rule by brilliant coloration about the head and by having a black, some what elongate, but not high bill, the length of which is more than twice the height. The culmen is considerably curved and much exceeds the tarsus in length. The wing is rounded, Nostrils exposed. A single species extends into Tenasserim. This has been included by Shelley in Cyanops, but I agree with Salvadori and Oates in referring it to the present genus.

Chotorhea mystacophanes,  Gaudy Barbet

Coloration: Male. Broad forehead golden yellow; vertex and occiput, the latter narrowing behind, crimson, sometimes verging on scarlet. Lores, chin, throat, and a patch on each side of the foreneck the same. A black supercilium from the lores, much broader behind the eye; a few feathers between the black supercilium and yellow forehead, as also the sides of the face below the eye, and the foreneck verditer-blue. A yellow malar spot on each side at the base of the lower mandible; a bluish tinge on the cheeks farther back. Wing-feathers, except on the outer surface above, brown with pale yellow inner borders; under wing-coverts also yellowish; some primaries pale-edged outside near the ends; under surface of tail washed with blue. All the rest of the plumage grass-green, duller and sometimes yellower below. Ear-coverts and sides of neck with a yellowish tinge; feathers of hind neck and sides of neck with brighter edges.

Adult females are said to resemble males, but if so, they appear very rarely to attain the adult plumage, only one out of 18 sexed female skins in the British Museum having the coloration of the adult male. In young males and in females generally the black eyebrow is absent, the forehead is bluish green, and the chin and throat are first green, then yellow. The scarlet patch on the hind crown is present from a rather early period. The change from the livery of the young to full plumage is very irregular in different individuals, the same region not always acquiring the adult coloration first. Salvadori has already questioned the assumption of the adult male plumage by females of this species.

Bill black (pale beneath in young birds); irides deep brown; orbital skin dark greenish or greyish brown; legs and feet very pale bluish or horny green.

Size: Length 9.25;  tail 2.3;  wing 3.9;  tarsus 1; bill from gape 1.75

Distribution: The Malay peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo, extending into the southern half of Tenasserim as far as the Henza basin north of Tavoy.

Habits: This Barbet is chiefly found in evergreen forests, and is very noisy, incessantly uttering its trisyllabic cry, especially in the evening after dusk, and sometimes on moonlight nights. Davison, who furnishes the preceding notes, adds that he has frequently seen this bird clinging to the stem of a tree and tapping like a Woodpecker.