HONEYSUCKERS 79 



and more ethereal than our little honeysuckers, but 

 their methods of feeding are so similar that the mistake 

 is a pardonable one. 



As every one knows, butterflies and bees, in return 

 for the honey they receive, render service to the flowers 

 by carrying the pollen from the stamen of one to the 

 stigma of the other and thus bring about cross-fertilisa- 

 tion, which most botanists believe to be essential to the 

 well-being of a species. Honeysuckers probably perform 

 a similar service, for, as they flit from flower to flower, 

 their little heads may be seen to be well dusted with 

 yellow pollen. 



Sunbirds are found all over India, but they are most 

 plentiful in the South, being essentially tropical birds ; 

 they are merely summer visitors to the Punjab ; when 

 the short, cold winter days come, they leave that 

 province and betake themselves to some milder clime. 



Three species may be seen in our Madras gardens 

 Loten's, the purple, and the yellow honeysucker. 



Of the cocks of the first and second species (Arach- 

 nechthra lotenia and A. asiatica) it may perhaps be said 

 that they are clothed in purple and fine linen, for their 

 plumage is a deep, rich purple with a sheen and a gloss 

 like that on a brand-new silk hat. Sometimes the bird 

 looks black, at others green, and more frequently 

 mauve, according to the intensity of the light and the 

 angle at which the sun's rays fall upon it. It is not 

 very easy to distinguish between these two sunbirds 

 unless specimens are held in the hand, when the violet- 

 black abdomen of the purple species can be easily 

 distinguished from the snuff-brown lower parts of 



