NECTARINIA. 17 



Lado ; Pelz. Verhandl. Wieu. xxxi. p. 114 (1881) Kiri ; Gadow, 

 Cat. B. M. ix. p. 10 (1884) ; Sharpe, Linn. Soc. Journ. Zool. xvii. 

 p. 427 (1884) Nyam-nyam; Eendall, Ibis, 1892, p. 219, Gambia. 



Adult Male. Similar to H. metallica but readily distinguished by the 

 violet-shaded steel-blue of the upper tail-coverts not extending on to the 

 back, and in its having no well-marked collar of that colour. Total length 

 6 inches, culmen 0-4, wing 2T5, tail 3-5, tarsus 0-55. 



The Western Yellow-breasted Long-tailed Sunbird ranges 

 over Africa to the west, from the Nile Valley, and south, 

 from Kordofan and Senegambia into the Nyam-nyam country. 



This species is the western representative of H. metallica 

 and is closely allied to that bird both in colouring and habits. 

 It is apparently common on the West Coast from St. Louis 

 at the mouth of the Senegal River to Sierra Leone ; but 

 although I find no record of it from further south along this 

 coast, specimens have been collected in the Nyam-nyam 

 country by Bohndorff at Dem Suleiman and Monderich ; 

 by Emm at Lado and Kiri and down the Nile Valley to 

 Kordofan, where Petherick procured a specimen which is 

 now in the Cambridge Museum. 



Antinori and Von Heuglin only met with this species in 

 the Upper White Nile district between Djur aud Kosango, 

 where it was in breeding plumage from April to October. 



Genus II. NECTARINIA. 



Bill long ; culmen not shorter, but about equal in length to the tarsus. 

 Full plumaged males have the two centre tail-feathers narrow, much 

 elongated, with their ends pointed and not widened ; entire head, neck and 

 back of metallic colours, mostly green or bronze ; abdomen metallic green 

 or black. The metallic colours and the elongated tail-feathers generally, if 

 not always, disappear by a moult on the approach of the colder season. 

 Females and nestlings are above uniform brown of an ashy or olive shade, 

 and paler beneath. 



The genus is confined to the African continent, south of the Tropic of 

 Cancer, and comprises nine known species. 



[June, 1S99. 2 



