Correspondence. ~ 103 



Correspondence. 



THE AMETHVST-RrMPED SUNBIRD. 



Sir, — I am sending you a Sunbird's nest^ which I have received 

 from my sister (Mrs. Dickinson), who lives in the South of Ceylon, about 

 fifteen mile; from the coast. -She sends me the following notes concerning 

 it : 



" We have one of the bigger Sunbirds nesting by a garden bench 

 "just on one side of the window. It is hung on a twig not ij feet 

 " above the ground, with a brick receiver for the water-pipe just i^elow, 

 " where the cats come to sun themselves. It nearly touches the cosy 

 " thair I sit out in every day. As 1 write the hen is sitting and I could 

 " nearly touch her with my pen. The nest is in the angle of the wall. 

 ■■ The cock chose the site and was days over it, but he only knows how 

 " to tic hairs, the hen did all the rost and completed it in five days. Ihe 

 " <-(irk was in attendance, watching nnd singing, while she built. 



" For some reason the cats do not eat her, 1 think they must 

 " jump down twenty times a day and she flies off, but they never try ;o 

 " touch her. One night she flew into the lamp but the Podian (native 

 " page boy) replaced her on the nest. 



" I do hope she hatches' out her three or four eggs. The nesi 

 " face^ the wall and pipe. I will send it when it's all finished with. 

 " I'hc hen's head and neck are always outside the nest as she patiently 

 " incubates the eggs." 



" The male is metallic purple-brown, with brilliant purple crown 

 ■ an i throat ; pale cinnry-yellow chest and breast, and thin arched beak. 

 '' The female is dull grey-brown above and greyish-white below. 

 '■ f)ne young bird was reared in this ne^t in December." 



.M\ sister sent me the nest by ne.vi mall, s.) I | r.'sume the young 

 must have been hatched when she was writing. I thought the abo\e miglit 

 interest readers of " Bird Notes." 



•larporley, C:hcshirc, 2/3/'i6. iMrs.) ALICE SIOREY. 



[The nest is most interesting ; it is composed of fine and coarse bents, 

 liclicn, plant down, and paper shavings (very little of the litter >, well 

 cemented together with cobwebs and is attached (suspended i to a 

 slender twig. The nest i^ very nearly a true oval, four inches long by 

 two inches tliick (outside measurements). The:*' is a circular entrance hole, 

 at the side about one/ inch in diameter, partially obscured by a slightly 

 overhanging porch. The walls ot the nest are well cemented together, and 

 only in the upper part c.m a littli' light be seen through them. The' 

 riest pocket is one and three-eighths of an inch deep and snugly lined 

 witli feathers. At the moment I have no\ a camera handy, but lor a later 

 issue I wil! photograph and reproduce it. -En]. 



I'l.N'TAILED rARROT-FI.VCHK.S (.Nonpareils). 

 Sir,- The following note i^'Fenasserim^ Jan, i'>, 1916), will prob- 



