62 Mr. G. L. Bates — Field-Notes on the 



correctly (' The Ibis/ 1908, p. 338) . The food is nearly always 

 found to be spiders. Sometimes in the stomachs I have found 

 what looked like little particles — stamens, &c. — of flowers. 



An individual of this species was found caught in the web 

 of a big black-and-yellow spider, a sort of retribution for the 

 many little spiders it had killed and eaten. 



Nests and eggs have now been certainly identified by 

 having the bird caught on the nest, as Bulu boys well know 

 how to do. These nests are hung from a twig and composed 

 of fine fibres, some of which pass over the twig, mixed with 

 dry leaves or grass in varying proportions, with little or no 

 down inside, ditfering thus from the nests of some Sunbirds. 



The eggs are two in a clutch. They measure 17-18 mm. x 

 13 mm. In my notebook I speak of some of them as of a 

 dull (grey ?) colour, with blackish spots aud irregular marks 

 scattered sparingly over them. But the two eggs from one 

 of the nests — ^just as certainly identified as the others — 

 dift'ered greatly from them in wanting the blackish spots 

 and markings. (I seem, unfortunately, to have left behind 

 the eggs of this species, and could not shew them to 

 Mr. Grant.) 



1848. Chalcomitra cyanol^ma. [Zcsol.] 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 339. 



This is rather a common Sunbird, both about Efulen and 

 in the Ja district. It is seen around flowering shrubs and 

 vines. The food found in the stomach was sometimes spiders, 

 sometimes hard seeds resembling grape-seeds, sometimes 

 •what appeared to be bits of flowers, as if the flowers them- 

 selves had been picked to pieces and swallowed. In the 

 stomachs of these and other Sunbirds is often found a 

 liquid, which may consist of the nectar of flowers mixed with 

 the stomach juices. I did not feel like tasting it to find 

 out. 



1857. Chalcomitra angolensis. [ZesoL] 

 Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 338. 



This Sunbird is rather common, and is seen most often 

 about the flowering twigs of some tree standing in an open 



