PROMEBOPID.E PBOMEROPS 271 



hunting through a thicket of proteas in search of nectar and various 

 small insects. 



When sucking up the nectar of one of the larger protea-blossoms, 

 the bird perches on the edge of the flower, plunges its long bill and 

 the greater part of its head downwards among the petals, and 

 retains it in this position until satisfied. As a result the narrow, 

 shaft-like feathers of the forehead frequently become saturated and 

 stained with juice and dusted over with pollen and it is probable 

 that this bird plays an important part in the cross-fertilisation of 

 several species of protea. At times these Sugar-birds feed on the 

 saccharine juices of the aloe, the Cape honeysuckle, and several of 

 the larger heaths, as well as on spiders, small beetles and a variety 

 of smaller insects. They are expert fly-catchers, darting upon 

 passing insects from their perch and rarely missing their mark. 



Towards the end of April or beginning of May, the males, when 

 not feeding, fighting, or chasing one another with shrill cries, may 

 be usually seen perched on the summit of some prominent bush or 

 young pine-tree, their long, flexible and curved central tail-feathers 

 blowing about in the wind, often in a reversed curve over the bird's 

 head. At intervals one of them will mount twenty or thirty feet in 

 the air, incline his body backwards, violently jerk his tail up and 

 down, and at the same time rustle the feathers together, and bring 

 his wings with sharp, resounding " claps " against his sides, before 

 returning to his perch to indulge in an outburst of song. Occa- 

 sionally a male may be seen to throw the longer tail-feathers into a 

 double curve. 



At the same season the hens amuse themselves by flying round 

 and round in a small circle. 



This Sugar-bird breeds in winter, in May, June and July, the 

 flowering season of one of the larger white proteas. The nest, 

 usually completed towards the end of May, is somewhat large, 

 deeply cup -shaped, and strongly built of small sticks and twigs of 

 heath, fibrous rootlets, dry grass, and the spines of pine trees, lined 

 with pine leaves and the red downy seeds of a protea. It is care- 

 fully concealed, sometimes in a tuft of heath near the ground, at 

 others in the crotch of a protea-bush four or five feet above it, but 

 more generally in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, in a thick 

 young pine tree from four to ten feet above the ground. On one 

 occasion I found a nest built on some broken-down sedge in a 

 swampy hollow. Two eggs are laid, and these are incubated, as 

 far as I have observed, by the female only. She sits very closely, 



