VIOLET-HEADED SUN-BIRD. 201 



paler, and of a more yellow tint beneath. The 

 young of both sexes nearly resemble each other, 

 and are above greyish olive, beneath yellowish. The 

 species is abundant in the vicinity of the Cape, but 

 it delights in the more mountainous districts, and 

 only descends to the gardens during the season of 

 the flowers, and while the orange trees are in 

 blossom. The male has a quick, lively, and agree- 

 able warble. The nest is placed in thick bushes, 

 formed of the down of plants, and covered exteriorly 

 with lichens or fine moss. The eggs are white, 

 mottled with minute brown dots. Latham says the 

 structure of the nest is loose and artificial. 



The tail, in the Violet-headed Sun-bird of Africa, 

 is regularly graduated, and we have the form con- 

 tinued in several species from Continental India, 

 where it prevails, and also exists in a more deve- 

 loped manner in some lovely birds sent to us 

 from Nipaul by Mr. Hodgson, and which we shall 

 immediately describe and figure from his specimens; 

 but in doing this, let it be distinctly understood 

 that we do so with no wish to interfere with his 

 discoveries ; and we cannot help expressing our 

 regret to see that gentleman daily deprived of the 

 merit of his extensive researches in ornithology by 

 the arrival of insulated specimens, when we know 

 that for some years large remittances collected by 

 him, containing hundreds of new species, have con- 

 tinued hidden in the keeping of his friends. In 

 some of these Indian species the centre feathers 

 become much more elongated, and seem to lead 



