54 Occasional Sotes. 



The Sunbirds are active, strong-flying little birds, which do 

 not appear to depend in any way on concealment for safety, 

 and spend as much of their time in the open chasing and 

 capturing insects as they do in sucking nectar from flowers. 

 The Black Sunbird does not appear to lose its brilliant colours 

 throughout the year. No doubt it is difficult to distinguish 

 this bird amid the Kaffir Boom flowers, but these trees are 

 only in flower during a few weeks in the year, and it cannot 

 be suggested that the Black Sunbird's colour has been 

 acquired for concealment among Kaffir Boom flowers. 

 Again, this Sunbird is found where there are no Kaffir 

 Booms, and frequents many flowers which in no way resemble 

 its colour. At the time of writing these lines (May) there 

 are generall} three male Black Sunbirds in full plumage in 

 my garden every n)orning, darting about among the bare 

 branches of the fruit-trees, or gathering nectar from the 

 eucalyptus flowers, and in my opinion they can only be 

 described as quite conspicuous. 



Mr. Haagner's remarks regarding the Malachite or Long- 

 tailed Green Sunbird are not clear to me. The flowering 

 period of the Mimosa Thorn lasts a very short time in each 

 year, and the bird is not specially or even usually associated 

 with Mimosa Thorns in my observation, and is Ibund plenti- 

 fully where there are no thorns. Stark says that JS\ famosa 

 frequents Proteas, and it is clear that there can be no close 

 resemblance between the colour of the leaves or flowers of 

 Proteas and the brilliant metallic green of the bird. If it is 

 correct to say that fhe Malachite Sunbird loses its bright 

 plumage about the time that the Mimosa Thorn sheds its 

 leaves, it is equally certain that before the Thorn is in leaf 

 again, and certainly long before it is in flower, there are 

 plenty of these Sunbirds in all stages of plumage to be 

 found hovering round the orange and brick-red coloured 

 flowers of the thorny-leaved Aloe, which grows all along the 

 Band, and in regard to which there can be no question of 

 Protective Resemblance. 



In concluding, I would say that Mr. Haagner's observations 



