Historical reference: Do not rely on this information. It is very old. About this collection
Barbet, any bird of the family Megalaemidae (containing 13 genera with 81 species) widely distributed in the tropics, but characteristic of the equatorial forest-zone, the most remarkable forms being confined to equatorial America, West Africa, and the Indo-Malay islands. They are rather small birds, of heavy ungraceful form and gaudy plumage, strictly arboreal in their habits and feeding on fruit, seeds, and buds, and occasionally on insects. The name was formerly applied to the Bucconidae or Puff-birds (q.v.).