452 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON AN AUSTRALIAN DUCK. [May 16, 
folded wing 2 in. 34 lin., of tail 1 in. 8 lin., of tarsus 7 lin. (One 
example.) 
This Sun-bird belongs to Shelley’s “ pale metallic group” of 
the genus Cinnyris, and is in colouring almost identical with C. afer 
(L.), but differs strikingly in size, being not larger than C. chalybeus 
(L.), and in the shortness of its beak. In the male the metallic 
green is perhaps rather more smooth and brilliant than in C. afer, 
and the scarlet of the breast somewhat lighter ; but it is in the width 
of the latter that the bird differs most, the specimen in finest plumage 
having the belt an inch broad, which is actually wider than the same 
marking in the much larger C. afer. It is further remarkable that 
the wings are as long as in C. afer, viz. 2 in. 6 lin., while in C. cha- 
lybeus they measure only 2 in. 3 lin. The bill, however, is 1 line 
shorter than in C. chalybeus (culmen 9 lin.), and 5 lines shorter than 
in C. afer (124 to 13 lin.). 
C. erikssoni cannot be confounded with C. chalybeus, the latter 
having such a very narrow scarlet breast-belt ; but it is more like 
OC. chloropygius, Jard., a native of all the tropical West-African 
coast from Senegal to Angola. This last-named bird, however, is 
much smaller (total length 3 in. 7 lin.), and wants both the blue 
upper tail-coverts and blue pectoral collar presented by C. ertkssoni. 
Hab. Shella, Province of Mossamedes (A. W. Eriksson, 1882). 
This handsome species was found by Mr. Eriksson to be not un- 
common in the wooded ravines of the mountain-range called Shella 
(“Serra de Chella” of Keith Johnston’s Library Map of Africa), 
rather over 2 hundred miles inland from the port of Mossamedes 
at Little Fish Bay. He describes its habits to be precisely those of 
C. chalybeus and C. afer, both of which he had observed some years 
ago at Knysna in the Cape colony, but which neither he nor the 
late Mr. Andersson ever met with to the north of the Orange River. 
Since seeing Mr. Eriksson’s bird here described, it has occurred 
to me that the specimen of C. afer stated by Capt. Shelley and Mr. 
Sharpe to be recorded by Prof. Barboza du Bocage from Biballa may 
possibly prove to be C. erikssoni, as the latter locality is only a 
few miles distant from the Shella range. 
5. Note on an Australian Duck living in the Society’s 
Gardens. By P. L. Scuater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., 
Secretary to the Society. 
[Received May 15, 1882.] 
(Plate XX XIII.) 
In a paper on the Ducks living in the Society’s Gardens, which I 
had the honour of reading before this Society in June 1880, I men- 
tioned that we had purchased of a dealer in the August of the pre- 
ceding year a lot of 18 Australian Ducks, which, at the time of their 
purchase, I had believed to be Chestnut-breasted Ducks (Anas cas- 
