112 BIRDS OF EGYPT. 



Fam. NECTARINIID^. 



68. Nectarinia METALLiCA, Licht. Yellow-breasted Sun-hird. 



(Plate IV.) 



This beautiful little Sun-bird is the only one of the family 

 which comes within the limits of my present work. I first 

 met with it near Kalabshee, in Nubia, where it was tolerably 

 plentiful in the beginning of April ; and I have no doubt 

 that it occasionally descends below the First Cataract ; for on 

 the 14th of April I noticed several specimens within twenty 

 miles of Philse. It is a lively bu'd, rarely sitting still for long 

 together, now fluttering over a flower, now darting off" to 

 some neighbouring sont tree. The female is a dull-coloured 

 but graceful little bird, generally in close company with her 

 partner ; and I have often watched them on some prominent 

 twig sunning themselves, and keeping up an animated con- 

 versation in a pleasing little twittering note, evidently in full 

 enjoyment of each other's company. 



Male. — Head, throat, upper half of the back, scapulars, 

 lesser wing-coverts, and outer web of the larger coverts bronzy 

 green ; remainder of the back metallic purple, shading into 

 steel-blue on the rump and upper taU-coverts ; tail black, 

 shaded with steel-blue on the edges of the two long centre 

 feathers ; remainder of the wing dark brown, with a narrow 

 paler edging to the primaries ; a steel-blue collar separates the 

 green throat from the bright yellow of the chest and abdomen ; 

 thighs black ; beak black ; legs and irides dark brown. 



Entire length 6-2 inches ; culmen 0-45 ; wing, carpus to 

 tip, 2"2 ; tarsus 0*6. 



Female. — Upper parts stone-grey, shaded with green on the 

 rump ; a creamy-white eyebrow ; wings and tail nearly black ; 



