40 Lord Walclen on the Sun-birds 



is most desirable ; for the affinities of the Sun-birds can be best 

 determined by a study of the females and young. Two distinct 

 phases of plumage are observable in the young or else in the 

 female of this species. The first^ in which the general colour above 

 is ashy-brown and underneath bright yellow, but with the chin, 

 throat, and upper breast (that is, the violet and maroon region 

 in the old male) albescent, defining that part from the remainder 

 of the under surface. In this stage the occipital feathers have 

 slightly darker centres, the upper tail-coverts are genei'ally 

 found passing into metalUc black, and the rump-feathers some- 

 times with reddish tips. This phase, I surmise, represents the 

 male of the first year. But it may be also found in the female, 

 to which Dr. Jerdon says it belongs. In the second phase the 

 entire upper plumage is greenish or olive-brovv'n, the lower 

 uniform light yellow. This I suspect to be the female livery. 

 In both, the outer edgings of the quills above are ferruginous 

 brown — a characteristic alone sufficient to distinguish this spe- 

 cies from the females or young of all the even-tailed Asiatic Sun- 

 birds I have examined. It may, perhaps, be found in A^. minima, 

 (Sykes). This second phase, which I attribute to the female, 

 agrees perfectly with the Linnsean diagnosis of C. currucaria. 



28. Nectarophila minima, (Sykes), P. Z. S. 1832, p. 98, 

 6 2, "Deccan.^' 



Nectarinia minuta, (Sykes) [errore), Jard., Nat. Lib. xxxvi. pp. 

 224, 26.5, tab. in titul., " Malabar,^' (?.?(?)• 



Hab. Deecan, " only in the dense woods of the Ghauts " 

 (Sykes) ; Malabar; "high forest jungle, west coast, from about 

 lat. 18° N. to Travancore, slopes of Neilgherries up to 3000 

 feet'' (Jerdon); Northern Ceylon (Layard, Ann. Nat. Hist. 2 ser., 

 xii. p. 175). 



This is an exceedingly rare species in collections. Two of 

 Colonel Sykes's types are preserved in the British, and one in the 

 East-India Museum. It is well marked, and, though closely 

 allied to N. zeylonica, differs by being smaller than even Ceylon 

 examples of that species (bill -43, wing 1-81, tail 1"25), by the 

 upper and non-metallic plumage of the breast being deep red, and 

 by having the metallic feathers of the lower-back and of the upper 



