20 Lord Walden on the Sun-birds 



Indian and two Indo-Malayan forms, the two Indian, N. zeylo- 

 nica and N. minima, being nearly related, one Indo-Malayan, 

 A^. brasiliana, showing affinities to Chalcostetha, a fourth, N. 

 sperata, being perhaps a Philippine representative of N. zey- 

 lonica, and the fifth, N. grayi, representing N. brasiliana in the 

 Island of Celebes. 



The Indo-Malayan subregion is the richest in species ; and the 

 greatest number are to be found concenti*ated in the island of 

 Sumatra, the metropolis also of Arachnothera . In the plains 

 and lowlands of India proper only three or four species occur. 

 Ten or eleven specific forms are peculiar to the Australian 

 region, including two Indo-Malayan generic forms, besides 

 which two Indo-Malayan species have partially invaded its 

 frontier. The remaining Nedarinim all belong to the Indo- 

 Malayan subregion, as I extend it. After Sumatra, which pos- 

 sesses nine, comes Java with seven, and Borneo with five or six 

 species ; while the Malay peninsula seems equally rich with Su- 

 matra, if authors are exact in the habitats they assign. Ceylon 

 possesses four, the same number and the same species as are 

 found in Southern India. A few species more than I shall 

 enumerate occur in our books, but have not been since recognized. 

 The majority of them are either described from manufactured 

 specimens, or else are badly described species belonging to other 

 groups such as Trochilus. One, if not two, seem to be bond fide 

 species, as, for instance, Cinnyris leucogaster, Vieill., from Timor. 

 Some species perhaps still remain to be discovered in the interior 

 of Borneo, in New Guinea and its islands, in the Philippines, 

 and in the mountainous districts of Siam and Cochin China; 

 yet the materials we already possess are sufficiently extensive 

 to permit of generalization, while the nomenclature of the species 

 known is in a state of confusion which will justify, I trust, this 

 impei'fect attempt to introduce order. 



1. Arachnechthra asiatica, (Lath.), Ind. Orn. i. p. 288, 

 no. 22, "India," j adult. (1790), descr. orig. 



? Certhia chirhata, Lath., torn. cit. p. 299, no. 62, "Bengala" 

 (1790), e\ Lath. Synop. Suppl. i. p. 132, no. 57, descr. orig. 



C. chrysoptera, Lath., torn. cit. p. 299, no. 64, "Bengala" 



