44 Mr. C. F. M. Swynuerton on the 



five to ten minutes. Meantime, liowever, the male may 

 usually be heard and, when bold, seen, flying about in the 

 branches all round with a loud but anxious " cip-cip-cip.'^ 



Fifteen of these Sun-birds measured in the flesh gave an 

 average of 5'64 inches, with a maximum of 6"2. 



QQ. Anthothreptes collaris hypodilus. Zambesi 



Collared Sun-bird, 



Rh., P. Though less plentiful than Cimiyris nuissoi at 

 Mafusi and near Chirinda, and than C. kirki in the lower 

 Jihu, this is in both cases one of the commonest Sun-birds of 

 the locality, and I found it fairly frequently in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Chibabava (400 ft.) in December and January. 

 At Chirinda it has been more or less plentiful right through 

 the past year, usually following the trees along the outskirts 

 in pairs and small parties and searching the foliage carefully 

 for insects, or frequenting any tree or climber with attractive 

 flowers which happened to be in bloom either in or just out- 

 side the forest. Some of its favourites were, I noted, Achyro- 

 spermum Carvalhi, Helinus Mystacinus, a large climbing 

 Gouania, Macro) ungia puhinervis, and the long brown flowers 

 of Halleria lucida, which I frequently saw it probing with its 

 bill during August in company with Cinnyris olivaceus. It 

 is readily snared on the Leonotis-h\oomB. It has a very 

 loud and veniriloquial call, " Tsiwu ! Tsiwu ! '' with which 

 individuals 80 or 100 yards apart may sometimes be heard 

 replying to one another. On April 10th I watched an 

 imn^ature bird, one of a family-party perched on the top of 

 a Carissa hedge, behaving somewhat curiously, bowing and 

 curtseying with a rattling noise of the wings such as this 

 species frequently makes in taking short flights. 



A nest which I took on the Kurumadzi on the 20th of 

 November was slung from the twig of a custard-apple {Anona 

 senegalensis) in the grass-jungle, three feet from the ground, 

 a very large leaf of the plant entirely shading the porch 

 and acting, doubtless designedly, as an eflective protection 

 against rain. A few leafy stems of a common climbing fern 

 {Lygodium subalatum) completed the concealment of the nest, 

 which was composed externally of dry grasses, a few small 



