Expedition to the IVhite Nile. 243 



often hover in the air in preference to perching, when picking 

 some insect off a tree. All the males we obtained^ except 

 one, Avere in various stages of transition from the immature 

 to the mature plumage. A single specimen is greenish grey 

 on the upperside, like the female, but with one or two 

 metallic feathers showing. The centre of the throat is green, 

 but the sides are still yellow. One long tail-feather of this 

 specimen is nearly full-grown, and the white is already 

 abraded ; whereas in other examples with but few immature 

 feathers left the central tail-feathers are scarcely longer than 

 the others, and are tipped with white. 



Adult and young. Iris dark brown ; bill, legs, and feet 

 black. 



2. Nectarinia pulchella (Linn.). 



This beautiful Sun-bird was even more common than the 

 preceding species. In habits it is very similar. 



Here, again, my specimens are in the transition plumage 

 well described by Dr. Gadow in the Cat. B. Brit. Mus. ix. 

 p. 8. 



Young. Iris dark brown; bill, legs, and feet black. 



3. ^GITHALUS PUNCTIFRONS. 



/Egithalus punctifrons, Sundev. tEfvers. Vet.-Akad. 1850, 

 p. 129. 



jEgithalas punctifrons has been treated by Dr. Gadow 

 (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. viii. p. 70) as a synonym of /Egithalus 

 capensis. A comparison of the two birds shows them to be 

 perfectly distinct. ^. punctifrons differs from M. capensis 

 in being grey on the underparts instead of sulphur-yellow, 

 greenish on the crown instead of grey, and grey on the rump 

 and upper tail-coverts instead of yellowish. 



Sennaar is given by Sundevall as the habitat of jE. punc- 

 tifrons. On the White Nile we observed very few of these 

 birds, and only at two camps — Gerazi and Shebesha, between 

 60 and 120 miles south of Khartum. They were generally 

 in pairs, and occasionally in company with parties of Sun- 

 birds. Their sprightly and enei'getic actions — hopping, 

 flitting, and climbing about the trees — in their search for 



R 2 



