74 BIRD ARCHITECTS 



It is a bird which may be found either in the bush- 

 clothed kloofs, the gardens and orchards, or more open 

 bushy stretches. 



The nest is a somewhat circular structure with a 

 domed side entrance, and is either fixed to the end of a 

 fairly short mimosa twig, or suspended from a thin twig 

 in a kloof. 



On January 5 we took a very neat nest built in the 

 centre of a pendent bunch of ptylandsia, which is now in 

 the Transvaal Museum. 



There is another common species, closely resembling 

 the foregoing in coloration, but is much smaller, the 

 Lesser Double-collared Sunbird (C. chalybeus\ which is 

 not so common as the larger bird in Albany, but at Port 

 Alfred the position is reversed, the smaller species being 

 by far the predominant one. 



Both these " Collared " species lay grey eggs thickly 

 mottled with slate colour and brown, those of the lesser 

 bird being naturally smaller. 



The Scarlet-chested Sunbird (C. gutturalis), in its 

 plumage of velvety-black, and scarlet chest and lower 

 throat, is perhaps one of the loveliest Sunbirds in South 

 Africa. It is common in Zululand and Natal, and at 

 Warmbaths, Transvaal. 



The Black Sunbird (C. amethystinus) is of a velvety- 

 black with the crown of the head metallic-green, and the 

 throat and cheeks, shoulders, and upper tail-coverts 

 metallic purplish-violet with a coppery sheen. 



Like the Scarlet-chested Sunbird, this species is par- 

 ticularly fond of the bright red blossoms of the Kamr- 

 boom (Erythrina caffra). Its nest does not differ to any 

 marked extent from the other species, and the eggs are 



