On the Cage-Birds of Calcutta. 423 



After these Mr. Gates places the Sun-birds or Nectarinudce, 

 Avhicli he divides into two subfamilies, the true Sun-birds 

 [Nectaninee) and the Spider-hunters {Arachnotfierifue) . 



In the first group we have birds laying white eggs more or 

 less spotted and marked with grey and broAvn or reddish- 

 brown. In ^tliopyga the markings are usually sparse, but 

 in some cases they are fairly dense. In Arachnecthra they 

 become far more so ; indeed some eggs in this genus look 

 very much as if they were of an uniform grey-brown. Now, 

 it is curious that these very nearly approach some eggs of 

 Arachnothera magna, the Great Spider-hunter, a bird of the 

 next subfamily; yet the members of that subfamily lay two 

 distinct types of eggs, which have apparently no connexion 

 one Avith another. The first type ranges in colour from 

 a deep and absolutely uniform chocolate-brown to a less 

 uniform freckly dark grey. This type therefore connects with 

 the other subfamily through Arachnecthra. On the contrary, 

 the little Spider-hunter {Arachnothera long'irostris) lays white 

 or pinkish eggs, faintly marked with darker reddish. This 

 type connects with the previous subfamily through the most 

 pink-tinted eggs of the genus jEthopyga. Thus we have the 

 members of one subfamily with two totally different types 

 of egg, forming the two extremes of a graded series laid by 

 those of the previous subfamily. This fact, so far as I can 

 ascertain, is quite unique in Indian oology. 



The Pittidce, or Pittas, lay typical eggs which cannot 

 well be confounded with those of any other birds ; there 

 is little variation among them, and no remarks are 

 necessarv. 



XXXI. — The Cage-Birds of Calcutta. By F. Finn, Deputy 

 Superintendent, Indian Museum, Calcutta. 



The taste for keeping pet birds is a very old one in India, 

 exotic forms, such as Cockatoos, having been imported 

 so long ago as the time of Jehangir, to judge from the 

 representation of a yellow-crested species in a picture 

 dating from the reign of that monarch which I had an 



