CINNYRIS AFER. 73 



5-5 inches, culrnen 11, wing 26, tail 23, tarsus 075. Drakensberg, 27. 7. 81 

 (A. E. Butler). 



Adult Female. — Above asby brown ; tail brownish black ; an obscure pale 

 eyebrow ; cheeks and under parts very pale ashy brown. Total length 5 

 inches, cuhnen 1-1, wing 2-5, tail 2-25, tarsus 075. Drakensberg, 27. 7. 81 

 (A. E. Butler). 



The Greater Double-collared Sunbird is apparently con- 

 fined to Africa south of the Orange river and the Limpopo. 



In Cape Colony the species has been recorded only from 

 the southern portion, and is apparently local, for according 

 to Mr. Layard it never visits the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Town, yet it occurs at Stellenbosch, Swellendam and the 

 Knysna. Frank Oates procured it at Mossel Bay ; Atmore 

 found the species breeding in the Long Kloof in the George 

 district in October. Captain Bulger collected specimens at 

 Windvogelberg, Mr. Richard at Port Elizabeth and East 

 London, and Atmore at Eland's Post. Mr. T. L. Ayres told 

 me that around Durban in Natal the species was to be met 

 with during the breeding season, from July to August, and 

 gave me several specimens he had collected at Pinetown, some 

 twelve miles inland. Messrs. Butler, Feilden and Reid 

 considered it a resident in the Drakensberg kloofs, where they 

 found it in the cold months of May and June and met with a 

 nest there, near Newcastle, on August 21. It was "a pear- 

 shaped ball of dry grass, vegetable fibres, cobwebs, &c, very 

 neatly constructed, and suspended by the small end from the 

 top of a good-sized green shrub about ten feet from the 

 ground. The entrance was at one side, with a portico over 

 it ; it was warmly lined with feathers. Unfortunately this 

 nest was blown down in a snow-storm before the eggs were 

 laid. One can hardly realise the fact of birds of this genus 

 building with two feet of snow lying on the ground, but it is 

 nevertheless a fact (B.)." 



In the Transvaal Mr. T. Ayres considered it to be a 



