Birds of Gazaland. 35 



flying about with a piping ' tiyu ! tiyii ! tiyu ! ' The 

 female was less demonstrative, and afterwards, on my 

 going into hiding in order to watch the birds, occupied 

 herself for quite a long time, quietly perched on a branch 

 beside the nest, in carefully preening the whole of her 

 plumage. The nest contained one e^^ only, white and 

 slightly chalky in texture, with a number of small deep sepia 

 spots scattered over the larger end, chiefly in the form of a 

 zone, and larger and slightly suffused underlying spots 

 and blotches of brownish grey." One, so far as I know 

 at present, is the full clutch. Measurements 20 by 

 13'5 mm. 



On another occasion, at a nest containing one young 

 fledgling, the hen bird was more daring than the cock, visiting 

 the nest boldly as Ave watched, while her mate flew restlessly 

 about from tree to tree, uttering the usual note. The youngster 

 had a good appetite, opening its bill, orange-yellow within, 

 and shaking it rapidly and excitedly from side to side with a 

 repeated sibillant note. We attempted to feed it ourselves, 

 but, owing to the length of the bill, this was by no means 

 easy, flies, &c., which were taken by the tip failing to find 

 their way to the gullet : the old bird inserts its bill right 

 down that of the nestling. 



The male of this Sun-bird difl^ers from that of the nearly 

 allied Nectarinia kilimensis not only in its purple and 

 bronze, instead of gold, green, and blue reflexions, but to a 

 slight extent in the form of its skull. In all the greener 

 specimens of N. kilimensis in the British Museum the top 

 of the skull is practically on the same plane as the bill, 

 whereas in N. arturi there is a distinct rise from the base of 

 the culmen, rendering that point appreciably easier to locate. 

 This hollow also occurs to some extent in such skins from 

 Uganda and Nyasaland as are intermediate in their colouring, 

 of which the actual type of N. kilimensis is one. In length 

 of culmen, wing, and tarsus the two forms are very near one 

 another, though, judging from the six specimens of N. arturi 

 with complete tails in m)'' collection, in this respect the 

 Gazaland species seems to fall short of the other, averaging 



n 2 



