Birds of Madagascar. 429 



nectar of the flowers of the Acacia lebbek " *. The male bird 

 of this species is exquisitely coloured with metallic tints of 

 purple^ green, red, and yellow. The other species is black 

 underneath, with green and purple metallic reflections on 

 head, neck, back, and wings. The single species of Neodre- 

 panis is yellow underneath, with green metallic colour above. 

 Dr. R. B. Sliarpe says that " this Sun-bird is evidently the 

 type of an entirely new genus, and is undoubtedly distinct 

 from every Sun-bird known to me or represented in the 

 (British) Museum." As its English and scientific names 

 imply, its beak is very sharply curved. 



These Sun-birds are of ser^dce in promoting the fertiliza- 

 tion of some of the Madagascar trees, especially of the Travel- 

 ler^s-tree (Ravenala madagascariensis) . Mr. G. F. Scott 

 Elliot says : '' The flowers are often visited by Sun-birds ; 

 Nectarinia souimanga was the commonest near Fort Dauphin. 

 The correct position of the bird is to sit on the highest bract, 

 and then to bend forwards and downwards to suck the sugary 

 liquid by introducing its beak below the odd petal. In doing 

 this it will explode a virgin flower, dusting its breast with 

 pollen, while in older flowers it will touch the stigmatic sur- 

 face, and so effect cross-fertilization. Sometimes it hops 

 into the middle of the flower, however, and tries to reach the 

 honey from the same bract by bending round the petals. 

 Beetles and hymenoptera often visit the flowers to suck the 

 sugary liquid which exudes over the edges of the bract. They 

 will only produce fertilization by accident, however, while 

 the narrow curved beak of the bird is excellently adapted to 

 pass between the edges of the rigid bracts and suck the 

 honey " f- 



In the second chapter of this article, when speaking of the 

 Woodpecker-like birds (see above, p. 226), we saw that some 

 little reference is made to the Sun-bird in Malagasy folk- 

 tales as having a melancholy note. The native names for 

 these beautiful little birds almost all consist wholly or in part 

 of the word Soy, the meaning of which is at present unknown ; 



* Probably a mistake for Albizzia lebbek, 

 t ' Annals of Botany,' vol. iv. no. xiv. p. 261 (May 1890). 

 SER. VI. VOL. III. ^G 



