SUGAR-BIRDS. 



73 



nests of the little ' Sugar-eater,' which I think is 

 Ccereba cyanea." But he does not describe either nest 



In a notice of Nehrkorn's Catalogue of his Egg-collec- 

 tion (Tfie Ibis, 1899, p. 462) is the following remark: 

 -" Among the special rarities of the collection we observe 

 .ecrgs of Ccereba cyanea from Amazonia (of an almost 

 uniform black)"; but H. von Jhering (The Ibis, 1901, 

 p 14) says : " Xehrkorn says that the egg of Ccereba 

 cyanea is" black, and Allen (quoting Smith) says that 

 it is white, with fine reddish spots. The description 

 of Allen is in harmony with my specimens of the eggs of 

 Dacnis cayana and with Euler's account of those of 

 Certhiola chloropyga." 



After wading through about fifty volumes, this is all 

 the information which I have been able to bring 

 together respecting the wild life of one of the most 

 charming, abundant and widely distributed of American 

 birds.* 



Dr. Russ states that the male assumes female plumage 

 in the winter ; and Mr. Frank Finn has remarked upon 

 the seasonal changes in this specie?. 

 .("Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng.," 

 LXVIL, pt. II., p. 64.) 



About sixty head of this species 

 were purchased in New York in 1873 

 .and brought into the German bird 

 market, where they fetched about 

 24 marks apiece. Previous to that 

 date isolated examples had been re- 

 ceived. 



All the hens, with the exception 

 of one possessed by a Mr. Heer, 

 quickly died ; but this specimen 

 lived for over two years. They were 

 fed upon a mixture of finely grated 

 sweet almonds (from which the skins 

 had previously been caiefully removed 

 by scraping "with the finger-nails), 

 crushed biscuit, and white sugar. 

 Most of the examples are supposed 

 to have died owing to their having 

 been fed upon Nightingale food 

 .yolk of egg, curd cheese, fruit, etc. 



From time to time examples of 

 this lovely species appear in the 

 .bird-market, and are generally 

 snapped up by bird-exhibitors; if treated like Tanagers, 

 that is to say. provided with a good insectivorous food 

 and plenty of ripe soft fruit, I believe there is no dif- 

 ficulty in keeping the>:n in good health and condition. 



PURPLE SUGAR-BIRD (Ccereba ccerulea). 



Male purplish blue, with the wings, tail, lores, throat 

 .and under wing-coverts black. Female above dark 

 green ; lores rufous ; below pale yellowish, striated 

 with dark green ; throat rufous ; bill blackish ; feet 

 'brown ; irides dark. Habitat, Colombia southward to 

 Amazonia, Eastern Peru, and Bolivia. 



I have not come across any notes on the wild life 

 -of this species, excepting that Salmon states that its 

 food consists of insects. Capt. Pam secured two speci- 

 mens for the London Zoological Gardens in 1905, and 

 therefore it seems better to mention it. Of course, it 

 should be fed like other Sugar-birds and Tanagers, for 

 it is not likely that, even in its wild state, it lives upon 

 insects only. 



BLACK-HEADED SUGAR-BIRD (Clilorophants spiza). 



Upper surface bright shining green, slightly tinged 



* Thienemanat, however, ea-ye that the nest rasembles that of 

 the European Whitethxoat, being constructed externally of root 

 fibres of an. orchis, the interior being neatly, but transparently, 

 lined with ha.ir-like dark slender grass stems; a little cobweb 

 both outside and in. 



with bluish ; wing and tail feathers blackish with green 

 margins ; crown and sides of head black ; under surface 

 slightly bluer green than the upper parts ; beak yellow, 

 the culmen broadly black ; feet black-brown ; irides 

 dark brown. Female grass-green ; paler in the centre 

 and sides below ; upper mandible blackish, lower 

 yellow ; feet brown ; irides brown. Habitat, Guate- 

 mala, southwards through Central and South America 

 to S.E. Brazil and Bolivia. 



Burmeister says that " in the forest regions of Cen- 

 tral Brazil it affects open places at the borders of 

 woods, is not very shy, and like the following species 

 may be met with close to and even in the gardens of 

 the settlers." (Syst. Uebers., Part III., p. 153.) 



Bartlett states that this bird is " abundant through- 

 out the country" in Eastern Peru (Proc. Zool. Soc., 

 1873, p. 260). 



Mr. Walter Goodfellow (The Ibis, 1901, p. 319) 

 says : " These birds mostly frequent the banana planta- 

 tions, and by tying a bunch of the ripe fruit to one of 

 the trees we managed to get a great number of them." 



IHE BLUE SUGAR-BIRD. 



Russ quotes a long statement by Paul Mangelsdorff 

 respecting his successes in trapping this bird in Brazil, 

 but it unfortunately adds nothing to our knowledge of 

 the life-history of the species. 



C. Hagenbeck first imported this Sugar-bird into 

 Germany in 1873, but the London Gardens had two 

 specimens as early as 1848 ; subsequently Bekemanns, of 

 Antwerp, on several occasions received single specimens. 

 Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria also in 1880 brought home 

 this species on his return from his travels, but it seems 

 never to have been so freely imported as its relatives 

 Ccereba cyanea and Dacnis cayana; yet one would 

 have supposed that a bird with so tremendous a range 

 that it has been considered worth while to break it up 

 into several more or less doubtful sub-species, and so 

 common that Paul Mangelsdorff caught nearly a dozen 

 with a trap-cage in less than a week, would have come 

 more frequently. Mr. E. W. Harper imported a hen 

 in 1907 which he priced at 50s., on account of its rarity 

 in the market. 



BLUE SUGAR-BIRD (Dacnis cayana). 



The colouring of the male is shining blue, very 

 slightly glossed with greenish ; the forehead, lores, 

 throat, mantle, and tail black; the wings black, edged 

 with blue, ashy underneath; the bill is black, the feet 

 reddish-brown, the iris brown. 



