32 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton oti the 



evidently forming the chief attraction. The birds usually 

 utter their loud piping call perched on the top of some tree 

 or bush ; it consists of three or four ascending notes ending 

 with the repetition, several times in succession, of the highest, 

 and, though less liquid, reminds one strongly of one of the 

 calls of Laniarius bertrandi. Two males, both evidently 

 breeding, measured in the flesh 9'5 and 11 '5 respectively, 

 and a female 9*25 inches. In every case the stomach was 

 nearly empty, the total contents of the three barely amounting 

 to the debris of half a dozen small flies. 



This Sugar-bird was previously known only from the 

 Transvaal, Swaziland, and Natal, this being its first record 

 north of the Limpopo. 



57. Nectarinia famosa. Malachite Sun-bird. 



Rh. I noted three males of this handsome Sun-bird in 

 tlie kloofs at Melsetter during September, and was informed 

 by Mr. Meredith that it was quite common in the neigh- 

 bourhood. One which I secured measured 108 inches in 

 the flesh, and its stomach contained a fly and a small pupa. 

 A female shut near the town on the 23rd of that month 

 measured 6"12 inches in the flesh, and its stomach-contents 

 were a beetle and several small flies. 



58. Nectarinia arturi. Arthur's Sun-bird. 

 Nectarinia arturi Sclater, Bull. B. O. C. xix. p. 30. 



Rh., P. I have not yet found this Sun-bird in the Jihu, 

 though it may be met with throughout the higher veld and 

 is particularly plentiful in portions of Northern Melsetter, 

 as at the townsliip itself, the Haroni, &c., and on the hills 

 of the Mafusi portion of the southern district. It is especi- 

 ally fond of frequenting the dense clumps of Enjthrina 

 Hvmeana which are scattered over the grass-hills, particularly 

 near Mafusi, and in that portion of the district one may 

 commonly see in October two or three pairs of this bird at 

 a time, usually accompanied by Cimiyris niassa, or sometimes 

 by C. chalybaus, C. kirki, or C. gutturals, probing the mag- 

 nificent scarlet flowers with which these trees blaze forth at 

 that time of rear. Another favourite is Leonotis maflissima, 



