42 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



GOLD-FRONTED FRUIT-SUCKER (Chloropsis aurifrcns). 

 " A bird whose general hue is the brightest grass- 

 green, relieved by a patch of shining turquoise blue on 

 the ' shoulder ' of each wing, displayed when the bird is 

 excited. The sides of the face and the throat and fore- 

 neck are black, and the centre of the throat, right up to 

 the beak, rich bright blue. The forehead is fiery orange, 

 and a yellow zone borders the black throat below, ex- 

 tending more or less faintly up the sides thereof. The 

 hen is said to be less brilliant in colour, but all the birds 

 I have seen looked much alike. Her mouth is said to be 

 biown. while that of the cock is bluish grey, and this 

 may afford a means of distinction. Young birds have 

 no black or gold on the head and only a moustache of 



seldom laying before the end of May or beginning of 

 June, and its eggs may be found well on into the middle 

 of August, as on the 16th of this month I once took two 

 fresh eggs. The earliest date on which I have seen eggs- 

 was the 12th of May, 1891. The nest appears to be 

 very like that of C. jerdoni (Hume, ' Nests and Eggs,' 

 2nd edit., Vol. I., p. 155), but I have eeen very few of 

 this 'bird's nests, and judge principally from the accounts 

 in the book just referred to. 



" Amongst other birds'-nests to which it nearly ap- 

 proximates are those of the genus Hemixus, the nests of 

 that genus differing principally in being more bulky and 

 less tidy. It is generally placed in a semi-pendant posi- 

 tion in a small horizontal fork, the supporting twig? 



- U 



GOLD-FRONTED FRUIT-SUCKER. 



blue." Frank Finn, I.e. Jerdon, says that " the femal3 

 has the black of the neck of smaller extent, and wants 

 the golden forehead."* Hab., " Sub-Himalayan region 

 from Dehra Doon to Sikhim, extending into Lower 

 Bengal. It also occurs through Aracan, Assam, and 

 Burmah, to Tenasserim and Cambodia." Sharpe. 



All that Jerdon says about the bird's habits is : "I 

 procured it in Sikhim up to 4,000 feet or so. It has 

 a sweet song, and, like the others, when caged, is quite 

 a mocking bird." "Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 100. 



Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker (The Ibis, 1895, pp. 222-4) 

 gives the following full account of the nidification of 

 the species : ' : This bird is one of the late breeders, 



* I think this is incorrect, though the forehead may perhaps 

 be paler in the female. 



coming outside the sides of the nest, which does not 

 hang from them as does an Oriole's. The fork chosen 

 is usually one on the outer branches of some small tree 

 or sapling, less often in a stout fork of some larger tree, 

 and I have never seen a nest placed on the upper surface 

 of a large bough in the manner that C. jerdoni is said 

 sometimes to build. 



" In shape the nest is a rather shallow cup, measuring 

 in outward diameter from 6.bin. to about 4m., and in 

 depth from 1.3in. to l.Sin., the latter depth being un- 

 usual, it generally being imder l^in. The inner portion 

 is made of very fine twigs and coarse grass-stems, more 

 or less mixed with moss-roots and the tendrils of con- 

 volvuli and other creepers, and sometimes with stalks 

 of the common maiden-hair fern. The whole of this is 



