CIO ]\rr. G. L. Bates on the 



The eggs are always two in number. They do not, as a 

 rule, vary more than half a millimetre in either dimension 

 from 15 X 11 mm., but one long, slender e^^ (No. 454<, the 

 fellow of which had been broken") measures 18 x 10 mta. 



[Nos, 413, 414 have a somewhat different ground-eolour 

 to the rest, viz. pure creamy white^ instead of bluish- 

 white.— W. R. O.-G.] 



CiNNYRis MiNULLUS. (Plate XL fig. 23, &^^.) 



Reich. V. A. iii. p. 487. 



Nos. 3579, 3602, 3631, 3637, 3600, 3663, 3669, 3762. 

 All c? ad. Bitye. 



Nos. 3544, 3632, 3642, 4166, 4191. All ? ad. or immature. 

 Bitye. 



Males. "Wing 46-50 mm. ; culmen 15-16 ram. 



Females. AVing 43-45 mm. ; culmen 14-15 mm. 



Several years ago I noted that some of the specimens, as 

 I sujDposed, of C'ninyris chloropygius were very small ; and 

 in April 1909, at a time when the Tya'a [Leea sp.) was 

 abundantly in flower and the little Bulu boys were catching 

 many Sunbirds with snares fixed on the flowers, I skinned 

 a large number of these very small Sunbirds, and satisfied 

 myself that there Avas a second but smaller species 

 resembling C chloropygius. In a large number of the 

 latter measured the length of wing in the males varied 

 from 49 to 53 mm., and the culmen from 17'5 to 19 mm. ; 

 in the females, wing 47 to 49 mm., culmen 17 to 18 mm. 

 There is thus a marked difl'erence in size, and es])eeially in 

 length of bill. It was noticed, too, that in the small males 

 the red feathers of the breast had dark blue metallic tips, 

 while in the larger ones they had not. Subsequently, I 

 discovered in the ' Vogel Afrikas^ Reiehenow's very brief 

 description of Cinnyris mhmllus from a single specimen 

 collected by Zenker, in which he gives only one dis- 

 tinguishing character, viz., white under wing-coverts, and 

 I found that this held in my smaller species (in males of 

 C. chloropygius they are grey). Thus there are three good 

 characters for distinguishing the males of C minullus (which 



