SUNBIRDS 129 



(Erytlirina caffra). Its msl does not differ to any marked 

 extent from the other species,and the eggs are cream-coloured, 

 streaked and blotched with purple-brown and slate-grey. 



It is not uncommon around Grahamstown, Cape Province, 

 and in Johannesburg, Transvaal. 



The Mouse-coloured Sunbird (C. verreauxi) is, as its name 

 implies, of an ashy- brown colour above and below with 

 pectoral tufts of bright red. Its range is rather limited, 

 being so far only recorded from Eastern Cape Province, Natal 

 and Zululand. 



In Albany it was formerly fairly common, but of late 

 years has become somewhat scarce. We were lucky enough 

 to take two nests on January 5, 1907, in a thickly wooded 

 kloof off Featherstone Valley, near Grahamstown. These 

 were both untidy-looking pendent structures of grass, 

 decorated all over with dead leaves stuck on with cobwebs 

 and lined with vegetable down and feathers. The nest is 

 almost invariably hung from a branch close to a krantz (cliff). 

 The eggs are so thickly mottled and blotched with chocolate 

 and purplish- brown as to appear at first sight of a general 

 rich brown colour ; they are the prettiest of all the Sunbird 

 eggs. 



The Orange- breasted Sunbird (Anthobaplies violacea) is 

 metallic- purple on the chest and has the rest of the under 

 parts of an orange-yellow, the breast being tinged with red 

 It is confined to Cape Province, ranging as far east as Albany. 

 It breeds in winter, building an oval, dome-shaped nest in 

 a tuft of heath, and lays two eggs of a white ground, marked 

 with grey-brown. 



The last representative of the family is the tiny Collared 

 Sunbird (Antliothrejites collar is), which is green above and 

 yellow below, the yellow being separated from the green 

 throat by a band of violet. 



