42 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



Gold-fronted Fruit-sucker {Chloropsis aurifrons). 

 " A bird whose general hue is the brightest grass- 

 green, relieved by a patch of sliining turquoise blue 0:1 

 the 'shoulder' of each wing, displayed when the bird is 

 excited. The sides of the face and the throat and fore- 

 neck are black, and l/ie crntrr of the Ihruat, right up to 

 the beak, -ich bright blue. The fore'.iead is fiery orange, 

 and a yellow zone borders the black throat beU.w, ex- 

 tending more or less faintly up the sides thereof. The 

 hen i.s said to be less brilliant in colour, but all the birds 

 I have seen looked much alike. Her mouth is said to be 

 bLown, while that of the cock is bluish grey, and this 

 may afford a means of distinction. Young bird.'; have 

 no black or gold on the head and only a moustache of 



seldom laying betore the end of May or beginning of 

 June, and its eggs may be found Well on into the middle 

 of August, as on the 16th of this month I once took two 

 fresh eggs. The earliest date on which I have seen eggs- 

 was the 12th of May, 1891. The nest appears to be 

 very like that of C. jerdoni (Hume, 'Nests and Eggs,' 

 2nd edit.. Vol. I., p. 155), hut I have seen very few of 

 this bird's nests, and judge principally from the accounts 

 in the book just referred to. 



"Amongst other birds'-nests to which it nearly ap- 

 proximates are those of the genus Uemixus. the nests of 

 that genus differing principally in being mere bulky and 

 ^ less tidy. It is generally placed in a semi-pendant posi- 

 tion in a small horizontal fork, the supporting twig? 



Gold-fronted Fruit-sucker 



blue." — Frank Finn, l.r. Jerd(m, says that "the femab 

 has the black oi the neck of smaller extent, and want.* 

 the golden forehead."* Hab., " Sub-Himalayan region 

 from Dehra Doon to Sikhim, extending into Lower 

 Bengal. It also occurs through Aracan, Assajn, and 

 Burmah, to Tenasserim and Cambodia." — Sharpe. 



All that Jerdon says about the bird's habits is : "I 

 procured it in Sikhim up to 4,000 feet or so. It has 

 a sweet song, and, like the others, when caged, is quite 

 a mocking bird." — " Bird.s of India." Vol. II., p. 100. 



Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker {The Ibis, 1895, pp. 222 4) 

 gives the following full account of the nidification of 

 the species: — "This bird is one of the late breeders, 



* I think this is incorrect, though ilie forehead may perhaps 

 he paler in the female. 



coming outside tlie .sides of the nest, which does not 

 hanij from them as does an Oriole's. The fork chosen 

 is usually one on the outer branches of some small tree 

 or sapling, less often in a stout fork of some larger tree, 

 and I have never seen a nest placed on the upper surface 

 of a large bough in the manner that V. jerdoni is said 

 sometimes to build. 



" In shape the nest is a rather shallow cup, measuring 

 in outward diameter from o.bin. to about 4in., and m 

 depth from 1.3in. to 1.8in.. the latter depth being un>- 

 usual. it generally being under l^in. The inner portion 

 is nnide of very fine twigs and coarse grass-stems, more 

 or less mixed with moss-roots and the tendrils of con- 

 volvuli and other creepers, and sometimes with stalks 

 of the common maiden-hair fern. The whole of this is 



