235 



SIPARAJA SUN-BIRD. 



Nectarinia Siparaja, RAFFLES. 



THIS is characterised in the descriptive catalogue in 

 the Transactions of the Linnean Society for 1822, 

 and in the subsequent catalogue in the Appendix to 

 Sir Stamford Raffles' Memoirs, N. mysticalis, Temm. 

 is quoted as a synonim. The discrepancy in the 

 description of the former, and figure of the latter, is, 

 in the first, " abdomen brown ;" in the figure, these 

 parts are pure white. From our last species, the 

 Eafflesian bird differs in having no yellow on the 

 rump, and Temminck's figure varies both in the 

 want of that and in the white under parts. The 

 N. Siparaja is from Java and Sumatra, and it is 

 probable may be distinct from the continental birds ; 

 the union of the other two will rest on the autho- 

 rity of the catalogue in the Memoirs. " This species 

 has a blue patch on the forehead, and a stripe of the 

 same colour on each side of the neck. The back of 

 the head, neck, and upper parts of the back, are 

 dark red ; the breast of a lighter red ; the abdomen, 

 wings and middle tail-feathers brown, while the tail- 

 covers and outer tail-feathers are blue*." Tem- 

 minck's figure is represented with the whole tail 

 blue, and the belly and vent pure white. 

 * Trans. Linn. Soc., xiii. p. 299. 



