118 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



THE SCARLET-BACKED FLOWER-PECKER (Dicceum cruen 

 tatum) is represented in Fig. 5 of Plate I. Although 

 barely larger than a big bee, the male which is the sex 

 figured is a very showy little thing, with his cream- 

 coloured breast and glossy black upper plumage decorated 

 by a broad splash of scarlet from crown to tail. The 

 hen is olive-green with a black tail, and a dash of scarlet 

 on the back just at the root of it. The young are like her. 

 The exact range of this minute bird is not known, but it 

 is not uncommon in the eastern parts of India, and in 

 Burma, whence it spreads even to South China and Sumatra. 

 It is common about Calcutta, but I never saw it wild there. 

 It breeds from March onwards, building a little oval nest 

 of grass and the down of plants, which is hung from the 

 tip of a high branch ; the two or three eggs it contains are 

 pure white. 



Occasionally this bird might have been obtained from 

 the late Mr. W. Kutledge, the only dealer I have known 

 to have it. When several are in an ordinary cage together, 

 they seem to be peaceable enough, but I found on buying 

 two cocks and a hen and turning them out into a large 

 verandah cage, that the cocks fought like fiends, and soon 

 both were dead. They appeared not to care for the 

 company of other little birds, but were not aggressive to 

 them. Mr. E. W. Harper succeeded in sending this 

 species to the London Zoological Gardens, and also the 

 still tinier Tickell's Flower-pecker (Dicceum erythrorJiyn- 

 chum) a plain drab bird with a flesh-coloured bill ; the 

 latter was the first bird of this family to reach England 

 alive. A large cage is more suitable for birds like these 



