CINNYRIS AMETHYSTINUS. 315 
spider found it a convenient place and selected it herself, or was 
brought with a bit of web by the birds, and then took up her abode 
and enlarged it, we cannot tell; but there the incongruous allies 
lived, and each brought up her own brood, or would have done so, 
had not we harried them both. 
Captain Shelley writes that it is the ‘commonest and most 
generally distributed of the sun-birds in South Africa; yet it is ina 
manner local, being in certain spots replaced by C. afer, from which 
it also differs somewhat in its habits, preferring the open country 
where the low scattered bushes and tufts of grass afford a shelter more 
congenial to its tastes than the woodland districts.’ Mr. 
Andersson says that he does not recollect having observed this 
species north of the Orange river, but he not unfrequently found it 
in Little Namaqua Land. Captain Shelley states that during his visit 
to South Africa he found this sun-bird very common at Ceres in the 
Cape Colony, at Cape Town and at Mossel Bay. Andersson and 
Victorin have both procured it at the Knysna, and Mr. Rickard 
records it from Port Elizabeth and East London, while Mr. T. C. 
Atmore has sent us specimens from Hland’s Post. Mr. Ayres states 
that “in Natal these sun-birds appear to be most plentiful in July 
and August, resembling C. afer in habits and appearance. In the 
Lydenburg district of the Transvaal the same gentleman says it is 
plentiful in the spring and early autumn, when they congregate on 
the blossoming trees and shrubs; they are also found in winter, but 
not commonly.” We also believe that we have rightly identified 
this species as occurring in Mr. Chapman’s collections from Lake 
N’gami. 
Head, back, breast, and throat, all shining, metallic green ; rump 
blue; wings and tail brown. To the green of the breast succeeds a 
narrow blue collar, followed by a red one, about half an inch broad, 
“not extending below the yellow side-tufts. Length, 4)’ 3 wing, 
2”; tail, 1” 10”; bill, 1’’, curved. 
Fig. Shelley, Monogr. Cinnyride, pt. i. 
300, CrvNyRIs AMETHYSTINUS. Amethyst Sun-bird. 
Nectarinia amethystina, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 79. 
An abundant species in the Eastern province, but never seen near 
Cape Town, and not very uncommon in the forest districts of the 
colony; we have also received it from the neighbourhood of 
