86 KEV. ROBERT GODFREY 



Wood have met Avith it in East London, and the former 

 naturalist telhs me that, though this species is inferior in 

 numbers to tlie Mouse-coloured Honeysucker, it is never- 

 theless common enough. 



Southern Short-jBilled Honeysucker — Anthreptes 

 collar is (\'ieill). — In the forest at Pirie, as well as in 

 the coast-scrub at East London, this is a common species; 

 it does not, however, in my experience venture near 

 houses. It is a restless and noisy bird, moving about in 

 small parties in the very heart of the forest as well as 

 on its edge. 



Nesting begins towards the end of September. At East 

 London, Mr. H. O. Parsons has found the nest with the 

 first egg laid on 11th October, and noticed two other eggs 

 laid on the 12th and the 13th respectively. Mr. Wood 

 also reports seeing a pair on 11: October, 1911, building 

 their nest on a bush overhanging a stream at the bottom 

 of a deep kloof above the Nahoon Causeway. At Piric 

 a nest with three eggs was brought in on 6 December, 

 1911, and another with two fresh eggs on 29 December, 

 1910. On 7 January, 1910, Miss Carry Ross and I found 

 a nesi: in the heart of the forest; it was conspicuously 

 enough suspended in a rather open bush at a height of 

 six feet from the ground, and resembled a tiny shoe hung 

 up by the heel. The owners of the nest flitted excitedly 

 about us, uttering a low alarm. Later in the day, while 

 watchinig a spider working with a large cicada in its 

 web, we saw one of those houeysuckers come three times 

 to a tree a few yards from us and pluck off pieces of dead 

 asparagus, collecting a number of pieces in its bill before 

 it flew off, but we could not trace it to its nest. Mr. 

 Center records seeing on 20 May, 1917, near the Blind 

 River, two youngsters just out of the nest and remembers 

 noticing one at midwinter some years previously. 



The nest brought on 6 December, 1911, was an oval 

 ball, formed externally of rough grass blades up to nine 

 millimetres in breadth. The rough grass is partially 

 bound togetlier with exceedingly fine iflant-stems, but not 



