34 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton on the 



uttered chiefly in spring;. The former I have also heard 

 once in April, when it was uttered by a male in a moment 

 of great excitement. The commonest, however^ is a loud 

 pleasant " pea-view ! pea-view ! " (as it may be rendered in 

 English spelling), which forms the usual call-note and is 

 constantly used by both sexes. I have found altogether 

 five nests of this Sun-bird, from early in September to the 

 end of April, in which month during the present year I found 

 two nests with young birds suspended from the drooping 

 twigs of Mr. Gilford's Eucalypts, twelve and twenty-five feet 

 from the ground. In the veld the vicinity of water appears 

 to be preferred, and the nest is suspended from some leafy 

 twig, to which it is sewn down the back for a more or less 

 considerable portion of its entire length, but no great attempt 

 is made at concealment. The following description of a 

 typical nest, taken near Chirinda on the 4th of November, 

 is from my diary : — " The nest was placed nine feet from the 

 ground, at the head of a vertical shoot of Masa lanceolata 

 overhanging a stream, an oval in form with the larger end 

 down. The cup was very deep, the opening being near the 

 top and protected from rain by a projecting porch" (this 

 varies, being in one case almost lacking) " of fine grass- 

 heads stripped of their seeds and intermixed with downy 

 pappi, usually those of the ' Rukangazi •* [Cryjitostegia 

 ubiongifolia) . The nest in general is formed of a thick 

 matted felt of these creamy-white pappi embraced by a 

 comparatively scanty outer shell of fine grass-stems and 

 soft dry grass-blades, intermixed with a few fine hlack 

 fern-roots and three or four dry leaves of Mcesa and of 

 Pterocarpus melliferusj" The glossy brown ramenla from 

 the bark of a large tree-fern {Cyathea Thomsoni) also occa- 

 sionally form part of the lining, and I once noted a few 

 feathers as well (in the general material, not the lining), 

 one at least of which, a long tail-feather, belonged to 

 the male bird. Shredded fibres from the bark of some 

 herbaceous plant (probably Triumfetta) and scraps of silky 

 cocoons also entered into the construction of one of the 

 nests. " The male became greatly excited at my approach. 



