58 The Scarlet-breasted Sunbird


THE SCARLET-BREASTED SUNBIRD


(Cinnyris gutturalis)


A specimen of this fine Sunbird has been presented to the Zoological

Society by its corresponding member, Mr. Harold Miller, the Director

of the Durban Zoological Gardens, and is the first example the Society

has received. It is a splendid species, with the head and body velvety

black shaded with brown, the forehead and cheeks glossed with metallic

green, the throat and chest scarlet, the feathers with a subterminal

bar of metallic blue showing as minute spots. The species occurs in

East, South-East, and South- West Africa.


Capt. Shelley, in his Birds of Africa, gives a long account of the

habits of this species from the pen of the late Capt. Boyd Alexander,

who tells us that " When not breeding, the males generally travel from

one spot to another without the company of the females. During the

heat of the day, when all other birds have hidden themselves in the

depths of the wood, they are abroad, seeming to take a delight in the

intense heat, always most active, while it is only in the early morning

and evening that they take a rest from their labours and retire into the

thick under-cover. As the pairing season approaches, the male never

leaves the side of his mate, and when courting her has a quaint way of

swaying his body from side to side as if it was on a pivot right in front

of his gaze. Moreover, he is constantly singing to her, uttering his

song from the topmost twig of some tall acacia tree, while the notes

both in tone and rendering are by no means unpleasant, and closely

resemble those of the Lesser Eedpoll ".


A nest found by Boyd Alexander was oval-shaped and attached to

three slender branches of an acacia tree, and about 20 feet up. It

was flimsy and untidy, made of fine grass interwoven with fragments of

skeleton leaves, cobwebs, and cocoons, and lined with fluffy down.

Near the nest was a nest of bees, which the birds made use of to guide

them to some rich flower store in the vicinity.


An examination of a series of these birds convinced Boyd Alexander

that the full plumage of the adult is not assumed until the second year.


D. S.-S.



