262 NECTAEINIIDJE. 



Arachnechthra andamanica, Hume. The Andaman Sun-bird. 

 Cinnyris andamanica (Hume), Hume, Cat. no. 234 quat. 



Of the nidification of the Andaman Sun-bird, Capt. "Wimberley 

 writes : u I send the nest and two eggs of A., andamanica taken 

 by me on the 3rd March at Aberdeen, together with the female 

 bird. The nest was suspended from a creeper growing on a 

 gurjun or wood-oil tree. It was built about five feet from the 

 ground." 



The nest is a typical Sun-bird structure, suspended from a very 

 slender leafy twig, about 4 inches from its extreme point, these 

 remaining 4 inches being allowed to hang down alongside the 

 nest. The body of the nest is egg-shaped, the longer diameter 

 being vertical, and the end nearest the point of suspension being 

 drawn out into a point. At the lower extremity there is as usual 

 a fringe of pendent ornaments, thin strips of bark, of two kinds, 

 brown and silvery. The body of the nest is about 5 inches by 3, 

 external diameters, the point is drawn up about an inch longer, and 

 the fringe hangs down about two inches below the bottom of the true 

 nest. About two inches below the point of suspension is a little 

 portico, which projects about an inch and immediately overhangs 

 the oval aperture, which is an inch or rather more wide and 

 nearly two inches high. The greatest interior diameter is two 

 inches, and it is only one and a half inch deep below the lower 

 margin of the entrance. The nest is somewhat loosely woven with 

 fine grass and vegetable fibre and a few dead leaves, and numerous 

 pieces of red fern-roots, white silver-paper-like bark, and other 

 similar vegetable odds and ends are incorporated in the outer surface. 

 As usual the margin of the lower half of the entrance is more firmly 

 woven, and the whole interior below the aperture is densely felted 

 with soft satiny vegetable down, mingled white and brown. 



The egg (for one was destroyed in transit) is a moderately 

 elongated oval, a good deal pointed towards one end. The shell is 

 fine but glossless. The ground-colour appears to be a slightly 

 pinkish white, everywhere clouded and mottled with a faint wash 

 of pinkish or purplish brown. Besides this a few dark brown, 

 in some cases almost black, specks, mostly very minute, are scat- 

 tered here and there about the surface of the egg. Only one of 

 the specks exceeds in size a full stop as here printed . The clouding 

 already alluded to seems to have a faint tendency to form a zone 

 about the large end. Some of the dark spots are surrounded by a 

 nimbus, as if the colour had run. 



The egg measures 0-67 by 0-48. 



Arachnechthra minima, Sykes. The Small Sun-bird. 



Leptocoma minima (Sykes), Jerd. E. Ind. i, p. 369 j Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 233. 



Mr. JDavison tells me that " the Tiny Honey-sucker breeds on 



