296 NECTABINIID^ ANTHOTHREPTES 



oval and domed, with a small side entrance near the top, is built 

 of small flexible twigs of heath, dry grass, and narrow downy 

 leaves, thickly lined with the soft white petals of a protea. It is 

 not pendent like the nests of other Sunbirds, but is attached by 

 its sides to the stalks in the centre of a thick bush of heath, a foot 

 or eighteen inches off the ground. 



The eggs, two in number, are white, dotted all over, but most 

 thickly round the greatest diameter, with small spots and streaks 

 of greyish-brown. They measure 0-65 x 0-48. On one occasion 

 I noticed a female remove the eggs from a nest, from which I had 

 startled her, and place them under some thick undergrowth a few 

 feet away. She apparently carried them in her bill. 



A second brood is frequently reared in September and October. 

 From December until March these Sunbirds are generally in small 

 family parties of four or six, the parents and their young, one of 

 the band being nearly always a male in full plumage, while one 

 or two are young males showing varying amounts of metallic 

 plumage. 



Genus IV. ANTHOTHREPTES. 



Type. 

 Anthreptes, Sivains. Fauna Bor.-Amer. Birds, p. 495 (1831) 



A. malaccensis. 



Bill shorter than or equal to the head in length ; both the 

 culmen and gonys nearly straight ; nostrils with an operculum, 

 basal, not concealed by plumes or bristles. Wing with the first 

 primary very short ; the tip formed by the third, fourth and fifth. 

 Tail square, or but slightly rounded, shorter than the wing. 

 Tarsus scaled anteriorly. Plumage : both sexes, and even the 

 nestling in A. collaris, with metallic plumage. About twelve species, 

 ranging over the Ethiopian and Indo-Malayan Eegions, are included 

 in this genus. One species is found in South-eastern South 

 Africa, and a race on the Zambesi River and in Eastern Africa. 



Sunbirds of this genus do not differ from the typical Cinnyrides 

 in their habits. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Upper surface metallic golden-green A. collaris, , p. 297. 



b. Upper surface metallic golden-copper A. collaris hypodilus, 



$, p. 298. 



