ARACHNOTHERA. 235 



Upper surface of the body olive, more yellow on the back and scapulars ; 

 crown dark brown, with olive edges to the feathers ; wings dark brown, the 

 lesser and median coverts olive or broadly edged with that colour ; greater 

 series of coverts and the quills with broad olive yellow margins to their outer 

 webs ; tail brownish black, the feathers margined with oHve and with white 

 ends, broadest towards the outer feathers ; sides of the head ashy brown, with 

 a space in front and beneath the eye and a very light eyebrow white ; a dark 

 loral band, chin and throat white ; breast,, abdomen and under tail coverts 

 bright yellow ; pectoral tufts deep chrome yellow ; under surface of the wings 

 brown, with the inner margins of the quills and the coverts white ;, upper 

 mandible black ; lower mandible as well as the legs and feet leaden grey ; 

 irides dark brown. 



Length. 575 to 6-5 inches; wing 2-8 ; tail 1-9 ; tarsus 07 ; oilmen 1-65. 



The adult female is similar in plumage to the male, except that the pectoral 

 tufts are absent. 



Hab. South India, Bengal, Tipperah, Chittagong and Arracan hills; 

 also Tenasserim and southern portion of the Malay Peninsula, the Andaman 

 Islands and the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Celebes. It has been 

 found also in the Wynaad and in parts of Mysore and Travancore, also on the 

 Neilgherries and the Malabar Coast. Shelley, quoting Hume and Davison, 

 says that in the southern portion of the Indian Peninsula, it has been obtained 

 from Kotagherry and other localities in the Neilgherries, but it is not so 

 abundant as in Tenasserim, where it is the most widely-spread Spider Hunter 

 and frequents the plantain gardens. It clings upside down to the purple bract- 

 leaves of the young plantain bunches, with its head turned up inside the bract 

 to suck the nectar from the flowers 



741. Arachnothera magna (Sodgs.), Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1848-, 



p. 981 . ; 1846, p. 43; id., Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. p. 221 ; Cab. Mus. Hein. ii. 

 p. 106 ; Reichb., Handb. Scansorice, p. 3 i6> pi. 593, fig. 4023 ;. Jerd., B. Tnd. 

 i. 360; Godwin- Aust., J. A. S. B. xxxix. p. 98; Hume, Str. F. 1874, 

 p. 473 ; 1 %7S> p- 85 ; Blyth and Wald., B, B'urm. p. 140 ; Wald., Ibis, 1846, 

 P- 3O7 5 Shelley, Monogr. Ned. p. 347, pi. 1 12, fig. i. ; Gammie, Sir. F. v* 

 p. 385 ; Hume and Dav., Sir. F. 1878, pp. 173, 507 ; Hume, Sir. F. 1879-,. 

 p. 89; Oates, B. Br. Burm. i. p. 327; Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Hits* ix. p. 105. 

 Arachnothera aurata, Blyth, y. A. S. B. xxiv. p. 478; Hume, Str. F. 1875, 

 PP- J 5> 85; Blyth and Wald., B. Burm. p. 410; Shelley, Monogr. Nect. 

 p. 351, pi. 1 1 2, fig. 2; Hume and Dav., Str. F. 1879, P- ^95 Oates, B. Br. 

 Burm. i. p. 328. The LARGE SPIDER-HUNTER. 



FIG. at p. 212.. 



Forehead and crown olive yellow, each feather with a large black patch in 

 the centre ; lesser and median wing coverts the same ; remainder of the upper 



