180 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



The Darling Honey sucker was generally seen singly or in 

 pairs; sometimes three or four would visit the same tree at 

 the same time, but more than a pair never act in concert. 



The song is very feeble, only a few twittering notes uttered 

 generally when the birds move about from one bunch of flowers 

 to another. Only on a very few occasions have I seen this 

 species hovering in front of a flower, and then only for a few 

 seconds, rather as if looking for a convenient perch than as 

 attempting to feed. When feeding, it alights sometimes above the 

 flower, and head downwards turns its head up into the flower, 

 and sometimes below the flower, when it thrusts its bill 

 straight up into the latter. It generally seems to require half 

 a dozen successive sips to exhaust the nectar in each flower. — ■ 

 W.D.] 



This species differs conspicuously from siparaja in its larger 

 bill and longer tail, and in the much greater extent of the 

 metallic cap which is green instead of violet ; in the absence of the 

 yellow bases to the throat feathers which in siparaja often show 

 through recalling vigorsi ; in the absence of the black line inside 

 the violet throat stripes, and in the color of the upper tail- 

 coverts, green in the present species, violet in siparaja. 



Males. — Length (according to length of tail), 4*6 to 5*25 ; 

 expanse, 6-62 to 7*2 ; tail from vent 175, to 235 ; wing, 2*05 to 

 2-35 ; tarsus, 0'46 to 0-6 ; bill from gape, 07 to 075 ; weight, 

 075 oz. 



The legs and feet are dark horny ; in some greenish brown, 

 the soles reddish yellow ; the upper mandible is dark horny 

 brown ; in some almost black ; the lower mandible pale reddish 

 brown ; the irides dark brown. 



Female. — Length, 4*3 ; expanse, 6*25 ; tail from vent, 1*45 ; 

 wing, 2; tarsus, 05 ; bill from gape, 065; weight, ? 0*25 oz. 



The legs and feet in this female were a dark reddish brown. 



227 Ms.— iEthopyga dabryi, Verr. (7). 



(Karennee, 4,000 feet, Earns.) Mooleyit. 



Confined in Tenasserim, so far as is yet known, to the summit 

 of Mooleyit and the higher portions of Karennee. 



[I only met with this beautiful species in one locality, and 

 that was near the summit of Mooleyit. I never observed it 

 much below an elevation of 6,000 feet. It was frequenting 

 a number of large flowering forest trees, at that time covered 

 with masses of red bell-like blossoms. Its habits were 

 precisely those of all the yEthopygas. Even at Mooleyit it was 

 decidedly rare, and I myself only succeeded in shooting four 

 males and one female ; but I saw perhaps a dozen more. They 

 were very difficult to procure, because they did not permanently 



