538 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



five days March 23, 24, 25, 28, and 31, 1937, shot no less than 34 males 

 and 15 females, all at 8,400 feet. 



I observed it only in the gnarled and epiphyte-covered rhododen- 

 dron trees, which make an almost impenetrable barrier around the 

 open bog at the summit of the mountain. 



Griswold (of the Asiatic Primate Expedition), at the end of March, 

 collected a pair "with their nest which had no eggs in it. The nest 

 was about 20 feet from the ground at the end of a small branch." 

 He notes further that "in [the case of] the two nests which I observed 

 being built the female did all the work." 



The male has the forehead, crown, nape, and center of the upper 

 back metallic peacock green ; the sides of the neck and upper back and 

 the middle back crimson-maroon; the upper wing coverts, scapulars, 

 and lower back deep olive-green; the rump bright yellow (sometimes 

 partly concealed by long yellowish-olive feathers growing from each 

 side of the lower back) ; the upper tail coverts and basal three-fourths 

 of the greatly elongated central pair of rectrices metallic peacock 

 green, the apical fourth and the remaining rectrices black (some nar- 

 rowly edged with metallic peacock green), all but the two central pairs 

 with outwardly increasingly broad yellowish-ashy tips; the remiges 

 black, outwardly edged with rufescent olive-green; the sides of the 

 head black, slightly glossed (especially on the ear coverts) with metal- 

 lic peacock green; the chin and throat metallic peacock green; the 

 uppermost breast bright yellow, changing into scarlet on the lower 

 breast and upper abdomen, this color, in turn, changing into bright 

 yellow on the remaining underparts (more greenish along the lower 

 flanks). The female closely resembles those of A. g. dabryii and 

 A. s. sanguinipectus but has the rump olive-green like the rest of the 

 upperparts and the bold white tips of the rectrices suffused with pale 

 yellow. 



Robinson and Boden Kloss state (Journ. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, vol. 

 5, No. 3, 1924, p. 375) that "Mr. W. J. F. Williamson has specimens 

 [of A. nipalensis~] from North Siam which have not yet been critically 

 examined . . ." They presumably here refer to Williamson's record 

 (1918) of A. s. sanguinipectus from Muang Wang; Robinson him- 

 self had earlier (Journ. Federated Malay States Mus., vol. 5, 1915, p. 

 109) mistaken the still undescribed A. n. australis for sanguini- 

 pectus and may have supposed that Williamson had made a similar 

 misiclentification. 



NECTARINIA ASIATICA INTERMEDIA (Hume) 



Indo-Chinese Purple Sunbird 



A[rachnechthra] intermedia Hume, Ibis, 1870, pp. 436-437 (Tipperah, eastern 

 Bengal). 



