118 EL.EOCERTHIA VERREAUXI. 



and G. verreauxi, which frequent these flowers in great 

 numbers. ' A little quiet watching ' says Mr. Evans, ' will 

 show the birds at these flowers, splitting open flower after 

 flower, and getting head and bill covered with pollen in moving 

 about, undoubtedly fertilising the capitate receptive stigmas of 

 other and older flowers.' In order to ascertain whether the 

 flowers of the Loranthus would be fertilised without the aid 

 of the Sunbirds, Mr. Evans covered a small branch of them 

 containing from eighty to one hundred blossoms with a net, 

 and found that not one of the blossoms so covered set seed. 

 After careful watching he came to the conclusion that the 

 Loranthus is quite sterile without the external aid supplied 

 by the birds. After the fruit is ripe another bird, a Barbet, 

 Barbatula pusilla, further assists the propagation of the 

 Loranthus by eating the covering of the berry and rejecting 

 the seeds and the viscid matter round them. To clear away 

 these the Barbet wipes its bill upon a branch, to which the 

 seeds of the Loranthus adhere by the viscid matter and 

 germinate." 



In Zululand the Messrs. "Woodward collected specimens 

 at Santa Lucia Lake and Eschowe. 



I find no record of the occurrence of this species between 

 Natal and the Zambesi river, but in the latter district Mr. 

 Boyd Alexander has obtained a specimen and writes : 



" By no means common. Our only specimen was obtained 

 on August 1, in a grove of tall trees at the little village of 

 Umquasi on the left bank of the river and about sixty miles 

 below Tete. The bird appeared extremely shy, flitting from 

 one tall tree top to another and never once descending to the 

 undergrowth of acacia bushes which were frequented by 

 numbers of Ghalcomitra gutturalis." 



Possibly the shyness of this bird was due to Mr. Boyd 

 Alexander having shot its mate unknown to him, for with 



