ANTHOTHREPTES. 241 



purple ; chin and throat cinnamon or maroon brown ; lower plumage rich 

 yellow tinged with greenish on the flanks and vent ; under wing coverts and 

 auxiliaries yellowish white. Bill dark brown; iridesred; legs yellowish green. 



Length. $ inches; wing 2'6 to 27; tail r8 to 1*9; tarsus o f 6; bill from 

 gape o - 8 ; culmen O'65. 



The female has the upper parts olive green ; wings and tail dark brown, the 

 feathers edged with olive yellow ; under surface of the body yellow, paler on 

 the chin, and washed with olive on the throat and sides of the body ; tail brown, 

 tipped very narrowly with whitish and edged on the outer webs with yellowish 

 green. 



Hab. Arracan, Southern Burmah, Siam, Cambodia, the Malay Peninsula 

 and the Island of Penang ; Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Flores, Labuan, Palawan 

 and Celebes. Tenasserim is also given as a locality where Mr. Davison met 

 with it from Amherst downwards. South of Mergui along the western coast of 

 the Malay Peninsula to its extremity at Singapore it is said to be one of the 

 most common of all the Sun-birds, occurring in large numbers in every 

 garden. Both this and A. hypogramtmca, according to Hume and Davison, 

 differ in their habits from the more typical Sun-birds, feeding as they do more 

 largely on insects. According to Captain Shelley, the nest of this species is 

 oval in form, with a hole at one side near the top. It is loosely constructed of 

 cocoanut fibres, shreds of bark and a few dead leaves, which bind together the 

 white silk-like down of some plant seeds, giving consistency to the structure, 

 but not specially forming the lining. 



Family MELIPHAGID^E. 



Bill variable in length, but always with a prominent culmen, broadened 

 out at the base, curved, and almost always with a slight notch ; maxilla 

 serrated. Nostrils basal, situated in a large unossified groove which is quite 

 soft and membranous, either longitudinal and with a well-developed coriace- 

 ous operculum, or oval, and situated in front of a coriaceous groove ; never 

 entirely covered with feathers. Tongue protractile, bifid, each half broken up 

 into numerous stiff horny fibres, so as to form a brush ; wings, tail and tarsus 

 variable in shape and length, plumage greenish or greenish yellow ; in the 

 MyzomelincR red, generally nude wattles on the ears or cheeks or round the 

 eye. (Gadoiu.) 



This family is divided by Dr. Gadow into three sub-families, viz., i, Myzo- 

 mdincB ; 2, Zosteropina ; and 3, Meliphagine ; three species of the second of 

 which only are known in India. 



Sub-family ZOSTEROPIN^E. 



Bill shorter or equal to the length of the head ; a ring of whitish feathers 

 round the eye ; ist primary absent or very short. 

 VOL. II. 31 



