CHALCOMITRA GUTTURALTS. 95 



T. Ayres writes, with regard to a specimen he shot in tbe 

 Transvaal, July, 1885 : " Whilst trying for a shot at Sea-cows 

 one morning, along the Mahupan, I noticed several of these 

 handsome little birds busily extracting honey from the flowers 

 of a shrub in blossom ; there was only a patch of it a few yards 

 in circumference, but this was all alive with Sunbirds, and, 

 besides the present species, I noticed G. mariquensis and 

 G. talatala. The next day I went with my shot-gun and 

 obtained the specimen now sent ; I subsequently saw two 

 others near Buffels, but was not able to secure them. This 

 is the first time I have met with the Natal Sunbird since 

 leaving the coast of Natal in 1870." 



In the British Museum there are eight specimens from 

 Swaziland, and twenty-two full plumaged males from various 

 localities between the Limpopo and Zambesi, collected from 

 February to October. In Matabeleland Messrs. Jameson and 

 Ayres inform us that the species is called by the natives 

 " Icomo mazadoona." They collected specimens at the Umvuli 

 river, August 16, and Quae Quae river, October 25, and 

 write : " This species suddenly made its appearance in great 

 numbers about this time, and remained plentiful for some- 

 what less than a month, and then became scarce again, a pair 

 here and there only remaining to breed. This was not for 

 want of food, for the ' German-sausage trees,' on which they 

 had been feeding, were still loaded with blossoms long after 

 the Sunbirds had left ; so I presume they must have been 

 passing to some more favourite locality." 



With regard to the species in Mashonaland, Mr. Sowerby 

 writes : " Very common in bush- veldt and kopjes, but I never 

 saw them before August 8. They are very pugnacious." 

 From the same country Mr. Guy Marshall informs us : " This 

 fine bird is not nearly so plentiful as G. chalybeus and G. kirki, 

 and seems to absent itself from about January to June, though 



