AEAClINEClITnRA. 



263 



the slopes oE the Nilghiris in September and during the earlier 

 part of October ; I have seen young birds only just able to fly 

 about the middle of October. The nest is suspended to a twig 

 about 4 or 5 feet from the ground ; it is similar, both m shape and 

 materials, to that of A. zeylonica, but considerably smaller. They 



lay two eggs." 



'Mr. Frank Bourdillon writes from Travancore :— " This b(^autiiul 

 little bird is common on the edges of forest, and is slightly gre- 

 garious in habit, three or four hunting about together amongst the 

 boughs of some gamboge-tree, which is a tree they seem particu- 

 larly to like. They are not at all shy, and when sitting quiet m 

 thick bushwood I have seen them perch inquisitively within a few 

 feet of my face. I have not obtained the eggs of this species, but 

 Mr. Ferguson observed a pair commence a hanging nest at the 

 extreme end of a gamboge-bough at some height^from the ground. 

 Unfortunately the birds left the nest unfinished." _ _ 



The eggs, which were taken by Mr. Davison, are perfect mmia- 

 tures of'^some of the eggs of Arachnechthra asiatlca. In shape 

 they are a somewhat elongated oval, a good deal compressed towards 

 one end. They have scarcely any gloss. The ground-colour is a 

 dull Greenish or greyish white, and it is thickly speckled and 

 mottled all over, most thickly so towards tlie large end, where the 

 spots have a tendency to become confluent and form a zone, with 

 a dull grevish and olivaceous brown. 



The eggs measure 0-62 by 0-42 inch. 



Arachnechthra zeylonica (Linn.). The Purple-rum ped 

 Sun-bird. 

 Leptocoma zeylonica {Lin7i.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 368; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. ^' E. no. 232. 

 The Purple- rumped Sun-bird lays at least twice a year, as I 

 have found the eggs both in February and August, but the breed- 

 ino--season is very variable, as will be seen by the notes which 1 

 qirote further on, "to which I may add that Mr. Davison saw a nest 

 coutainincr young birds in Captain Mitchell's verandah at Madras, 

 late in December. A pair had built in the same place, he tells 

 me, year after year, as is indeed, I believe, the habit of these 



Sun-birds. • ^ , ■ e 



The nests which are generallv attached to the terminal twigs ot 

 branches, at heights of from 10 to 80 feet from the ground, are 

 most lovely little structures, hanging purses with the aperture 

 near the top, and, as in A. asiatlca, with a little projecting portico 

 over the doorway. An average-sized nest wdl measure externally 

 from top to bottom from 5 to 6 inches in length and about 3 inches 

 in diameter. Internally from the lower edge of the entrance it 

 will be about 2 inches deep and about 1^ inch m diameter. I he 

 entrance-hole is from an inch to 1^ i^^h in diameter The body 

 of the nest is generally chiefly composed of very fine grass or 

 vec^etable fibre. The egg-chamber very softly lined with feathers 



