1093 



CINNYRID/E. 



CIONUS. 



for separating them are, he thinks, sufficient, at least until more 

 forcible ones are adduced than mere conjecture. 



Anthreptti, Sw. Bill moderate, rather strong, slightly curved ; 

 widening towards the base, which is much broader than it is high. 

 Base of the under mandible thickened, and not partially covered by 

 the upper. Wings, feet, and tail as in Cinnyris. (Sw.) 



A. Javanica (Nectarinia. Javanica, Horsf.). It is glossy metallic- 

 purple above, olive-yellow beneath ; scapulars, rump, and rather 

 broad lateral stripe extending from the corner of the bill to the 

 breast with a slight curvature, glossy violet ; the throat chestnut ; 

 tail black. 



Anthrr/ttt < **"-, * Zool. 111.') 



Mr. Swainson describes this bird as a Cinnyrit in the ' Zoological 

 Illustrations,' and by the name here adopted in his ' Classification of 

 Birds.' These changes however leave his declaration that it is not a 

 Nectarinia (a genus confined to the New World) untouched. 



Nectarinia, 111. Bill in general shorter than the head, wide at the 

 base, compressed from the nostrils. Tip of the upper mandible with 

 a distinct notch ; the margins entire. Wings long ; the first three 

 quills nearly equal. Lateral toes unequal. South America only. 

 (Swainson.) 



Blue-Headed Wmblcr ' ^ ,-,lnfhii<i >'iiini'><;-i>liii!/i}. (Sw., 'Xool. 111.') 

 Upper figure, female ; lower figure, male. 



N. cyanocepliala. Male : Changeable blue ; throat, back, tail, and 

 wings black ; the quills edged with blue. Female : green ; head, 

 cheeks, and scapulars bluish ; throat gray. (Sw.) 



This, according to Mr. Swainson, is (Male) Motacilla Cayana, Linn., 

 Gmel. ; Syh-ia Cayana, Lath. ; Pepit Bleu de Cayenne (?), Briss. ; 

 Cayenne Warbler, Lath. ; and Sylvia Cayenensis cm-ulea, Briss. 

 (Female) Motacilla cyanocephala, Gmel. ; Sylvia cyanocephala, Gmel.; 

 Sylvia viridis, and Le Pepit Verd, Briss. ; Blue-Headed Warbler, and 

 Blue-Headed Creeper (?), Lath. 



Mr. Swainson states that the habits of this bird are perfectly the 

 same as those of the rest of the Nectarinia. " It is," he says, " one 

 of the commonest birds of Brazil, and appears spread over the whole 

 extent of that country. It frequents the same trees as the humming- 

 birds, hopping from flower to flower and extracting the nectar from 

 each ; but this is not done on the wing, because its formation is 

 obviously different from the humming-birds, which, on the contrary, 

 poise themselves in the air during feeding." 



Mr. Swainson remarks that the young males, as usual before 

 moulting, have the colours of the female, and that the rich sky-blue 

 of the male in some lights becomes greenish, and in others dark blue. 



Dicasnm, Cuv. Bill short, remarkably broad at the base, and 

 suddenly compressed beyond ; the tips entire ; the margins minutely 

 denticulated ; nostrils triangular. Wings, feet, and tail as in Necta- 

 rinia. Indian and Australian islands. (Sw.) 



The figure referred to by Cuvier, and copied into the article 

 CF.HTHI.VD.S, is evidently a Humming-Bird, and must have been given 

 by mistake. The reader will find a most elegant and characteristic 

 drawing of D. hirundinaceum in Mr. Gould's grand work on the ' Birds 

 of Australia.' 



Mr. Gould -states that the Swallow Dicceum has neither the 

 habits of the Pardalotes nor of the Honey-Eaters : it differs, he says, 

 from the former in its quick darting flight, and from the latter in its 

 less prying, clinging, and creeping actions among the leaves, &c. 

 "When perched on a branch," continues Mr. Gould, " it sits more 

 upright, and is more swallow-like in its contour than either of the 

 forms alluded to. The structure of its nest and the mode of its nidi- 

 tiration are also very dissimilar. Its song is a very animated and 

 long-continued strain, but is uttered so inwardly that it is almost 

 necessary to stand beneath the tree upon which the bird is perched 

 before its notes can be heard. Its beautiful purse-like nest is com- 

 posed of the white cotton-like substance found in the seed-vessels of 

 many plants ; and among other trees is sometimes appended on a 

 small branch of a Castiarina or an Acacia pendula. It was on the 

 latter tree that I found a nest containing three or four young : a 

 second nest with the eggs was given to me in Sydney. The ground- 

 colour of the eggs is dull white, with very minute spots of brown 

 scattered over the surface; they are 9 lines long by 5. J lines broad. 

 The male has the head, all the upper surface, wings, and tail black ; 

 throat, breast, and under tail-coverts scarlet ; flanks dusky ; abdomen 

 white, with a broad patch of black down the centre ; irides dark 

 brown ; bill blackish-brown ; feet dark -brown. The female in dull- 

 black above, glossed with steel-blue on the wings and tail ; throat and 

 centre of the abdomen buff; flanks light-brown ; under tail-coverts a 

 pale scarlet." Locality, the Australian continent generally. 



CINNYRIS. [CiNNVRin.iv] 



riNQUEFOIL. [POTENTILLA.] 



CI'ONUS, a genus of Coleopterus Insects of the section Rhynco- 

 phora and family Curcnlionidie. 



Schonherr (in his 'Synonymia Insectorum") links the present 

 genus with the genera Gymnepti-on, Mecinus, and Kanodes, under the 

 head Cirmides, which may be considered as a sub-family. We shall 

 therefore briefly state the characters of these genera under this head, 

 first observing that the Cionides may be distinguished from allied 

 groups by their having the antenna; 9- or 10-jointed, 5 of which 

 always compose the funiculus, or that portion between the basal 

 joint and the club which terminates the antenna. 



The characters of the genus Cionus are as follows : Antennso 

 short, the two basal joints of the funiculus obconical, the remainder 

 short and truncated at the apex : the club long and indistinctly 

 jointed. Rostrum elongate, curved, inserted in a groove beneath the 

 thorax. Thorax small ; elytra nearly spherical, furnished with tufts 

 of a velvet-like nature ; fermora very thick in the middle ; tibiae simple, 

 truncated at the apex. 



Four species of this genus are found in England ; they live both 

 in their larva and imago states upon plants, more especially those of 

 the genera Scrophularia and Verbascum. 



Cionnt Verbasci is about one-sixth of an inch in length and of a 

 deep ash-colour approaching to black. The thorax is furnished on 

 each side with a buff-coloured patch ; the elytra have four longitu- 

 dinal velvet-like bands, which are black, and interrupted with gray 

 spots ; there are two velvet-black spots on the suture, one near the 

 base of the elytra and another near the apex ; the former has a yellow 

 spot joining it posteriorly,\ and the latter has a spot of the same 

 colour before and behind. 



These little insects are almost spherical. When touched or 

 approached they apply their long proboscis close to the under side of 

 the body (where there is a groove for its reception) and also {be logs, 

 and allow themselves to roll to the ground. Their larva:, which are 



