PROMEROPlD^. 75 



saccharine juice wliich these plants supply plentifully, and whicli will 

 often run in a copious stream from the bill of a fresh-killed specimen. 

 Le Vaillant states that it constructs an hemispherical nest in_ the 

 largest protea-bushes, covered externally with moss or lichen, and lined 

 with hair and wool. The eggs he describes as olivaceous ; but my son 

 procured a nest, which he assured me belonged to this bird, cup- 

 shaped, about three inches in diameter mthin, composed of rootlets, 

 grasses, and the spicular leaves of firs, mingled with the silky, dark- 

 orange seeds of the protea. The single egg conialued in it instantly" 

 -reminded me of that of the Bunting of England, being a pale dirty 

 cream-colour, irregularly though sparingly marked with wavy tracery 

 and hair-streaks, now and then inclining to blotches of a dark purple- 

 brown, or a pale, indistinct purple : axis, 11" ; diam., 8^". 



Genus NECTARINIA, IlHger. 

 Bill more or less long, curved, and acute; the base broad 

 and rather depressed, with the culraen rounded and keeled 

 between the nostrils ; the gon3's lengthened and curved, and 

 the lateral margins finely serrated ; the nostrils basal, lateral, 

 and placed in a short, broad groove, with the opening concealed 

 by a membraneous scale ; wings moderate and rounded, with 

 the third and fourth quills, or the fourth only, longest ; 

 tail moderate, broad, and slightly rounded, with the two 

 middle feathers lengthened and narrowed ; tarsi as long as 

 the middle toe, and covered in front with very broad scales ; 

 toes moderate, the outer toe rather larger than the inner, the 

 hind toe long and strong ; the claws moderate, compressed, 

 and curved. 



122. Nectarinia Ohalybea. (Linn.) Pi. Eni., 



24-62 ; Certhia Capensis, Linn. ; Lesser Double- 

 Collared Sitnhird, Cuv., Vol. 2, p. 85 ; Nat. Lib., 

 Vol. 8, p. 132. 



Head, back, breast, and throat, all shining, metallic-green ; 

 rump bhie ; wings and tail brown. To the green of the 

 breast succeeds a narrow blue collur, followed by a red one, 

 about half an inch broad, not extending below the yellow 

 side-tufts. Length, 4|" ; wing, 2"; tail, 1" 10'"; bill, 1", 

 curved. 



This is a very common species about Cape Town, and as far as 

 Swellendam : there it becomes mixed with the greater double-collared 

 species, C. Afra, L., which altogether ousts it in the George and 

 Knysna districts, and supplies ils place. 



It is one of the boldest and most familiar of all our sunbirds, 

 frequenting the flower-gardens in the midst of Cape Town, and even 

 venturing into open windows to visit potted plants. 



Nests, reported to be of this species, have been brought to "me — 

 pendant, domed, and porticoed structures, like those of others of the 



