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319 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
feathers glossed with metallic green.” Below it is pale ashy-brown 
in colour, with the pectoral tufts bright scarlet. Sir Andrew Smith, 
who first named the species, writes :—“‘ Only a very few specimens 
of this bird have yet been found in South Africa, and none, as far 
as I know, within the limits of Cape Colony: Kafirland, and the 
country eastward of it, towards Port Natal, furnished the specimens 
we possess. Like the other species of the group, it feeds upon 
small insects; and these it collects partly from the branches and 
leaves of brushwood and dwarf trees, and partly from flowers; but 
as far as my experience goes, I should be inclined to consider them 
as giving a preference to insects. In those I examined I found the 
bulk of the contents of the stomach to be insects, though at the 
same time each contained more or less of the saccharine juice.” 
Captain Shelley met with the species near Durban, and Mr. T. L. 
Ayres has forwarded several specimens to him from Pinetown. <A nest 
obtained by the latter gentleman was suspended from the outer twigs 
of a bush, and was composed of dried grass, and lined with feathers 
and horse-hair, being very similar in structure to that of Anthodieta 
collaris. Mr. T. Ayres notices that in Natal he has only seen these 
birds in the coast bush, and not so plentifully as most other species 
of Nectarinia, Captain Shelley also states that in its habit of fre- 
quenting the low thick bush it differed from C. olivaceus, which he 
only met with in the large scattered trees in the more open country. 
Captain Harford, when staying at Pinetown, never met with the 
species, but he tells us that along the coast and on the Umgeni they 
were very plentiful, especially about the time when peach-trees were 
in blossom. We must add that Lord Tweeddale’s collection contains 
a specimen said to have been procured in the Zambesi. 
Above brownish; head, upper, and lateral parts of neck, back, 
and shoulders, dark bluish-green, with a strong metallic lustre ; 
wings and tail black-brown; under parts yellowish-grey; tufts 
under the wings brilliant scarlet. Total length, 5°2 inches; culmen, 
0-9; wing, 2°45; tail, 2; tarsus, 0°7, 
Fig. Shelley, Monogr. Cinnyride, part ii, 
296. CrNNYRIS OLIVACEUS. South-African Olive Sun-bird. 
Nectarinia olivacea, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 78. 
Of this species Sir Andrew Smith observes:—“ In the same 
country in which we found C. verreauxi, we discovered another 
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