EL^OCERTHIA VERREATJXI. 117 



Cinnyris fischeri, Reichen. J. f. O. 1880, p. 142 Mozambique ; Fisch. 

 J. f. O. 1885, p. 139 Pangani ; Reichen. Vog. Deutsch 0. Afr. p. 210 

 (1894). 

 Elteocerthia fischeri, B. Alexander, Ibis, 1899, p. 561 Zambesi. 



Adult Male. Above, olive shaded brown with broad metallic olive green 

 edges to the feathers of the head, back, and lesser wing-coverts ; remainder 

 of the wings and tail brown. Beneath, ashy white with scarlet axillary- 

 tufts. Total length 5'2 inches, cnlmen 0-9, wing 2-45, tail 2, tarsus 0-7. 

 Durban, 7. 4. 74 (Shelley). 



Adult Female. Like the male. Durban, 1. 4. 74 (Shelley). 



The Mouse-coloured Sunbird ranges over Eastern Africa 

 south of the Equator. 



Sir Andrew Smith wrote : " Only a very few specimens of 

 these birds 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." 



This Sunbird appears to be more abundant near the coast 

 than inland. Duriug my stay at Durban, in February and 

 March, I had frequent opportunities of watching these birds, 

 as, although rare, they were not shy and frequented the thick 

 coverts which surround the town. In March a native informed 

 me that he had just taken a nest of this species, which he called 

 the Mouse-coloured Sunbird, by which name it appears to be 

 best known to the colonists. The nest he told me was of the 

 usual oval form and suspended from one of the outer twigs of 

 a bush, and was similar in structure to that of Anthothreptes 

 collaris which he brought me a few days later, that is, composed 

 of dry grass and thickly lined with feathers and horse-hair. 

 In its habit of frequenting the low thick bush it differed from 

 C. olivacea, which I only met with in the large scattered trees 

 of the more open country. 



I will here quote from the "Ibis," 1895, p. 301: "It 

 appears that the fecundation of Loranthus kraussi is entirely 

 due to the labours of two species of Sunbirds, Cinnyris olivaceus 



