65 [Vol. xxix. 



Obs. When Mr. Bannerman referred examples of the present 

 species to P. niiidula, Hartl., the Natural History Museum 

 possessed only one immature skin of that species. Mr. E. C. 

 Chubb, the Curator of the Durban Museum, has now kindly 

 forwarded to me a pair of the typical P. nitidula shot near 

 Durban by Mr. H. M. Millar ; and, as he has correctly pointed 

 out, these birds diflPer in certain well-marked characters from 

 the bird 5 from East Africa figured by Mr. Bannerman. As 

 the latter evidently represent a distinct form, I have much 

 pleasure in naming it after Mr. E. C. Chubb. 



Mr. W. L. ScLATER exhibited, on behalf of Mr. E. C. 

 Chubb, of the Durban Museum, a curious variety of the 

 Black Sunbird (Cinnyris amethystiaa, Shaw). It was shot 

 in a deserted garden on the outskirts of thick bush at Clair- 

 mont, some eight or ten miles from Durban, by Mr. Harry 

 M. Millar, on the 7th of August, 1911. 



When first seen it was feeding on flowers of the Kaffir- 

 boom {Erythrina) and was being chased by a similar though 

 less brightly coloured individual, which Mr. Millar at first 

 took to be a female, but on second thoughts believed to be a 

 young male. 



The peculiarity of this individual was that it had a pair 

 of conspicuous yellow pectoral tufts close to the angle of 

 the wing. In other respects it was in every way similar to 

 C. amethystina, a well-known species widely distributed in 

 South-east Africa from the Limpopo to Knysna, in Cape 

 Colony. 



The most nearly allied species with yellow pectoral tufts 

 was Cinnyris fuliginosa, Shaw, spread over West Africa from 

 Senegal to the Congo. This bird was, however, quite distinct 

 in plumage from C. amethystina, being of a pale brown 

 instead of velvety black. 



None of the examples of C. amethystina in the Natural 

 History Museum showed the slightest trace of the pectoral 

 tufts, and neither Mr, Harry Millar nor his brother, the late 

 Mr. A. D. Millar, had ever seen anything like the present 

 bird, though they had been collecting around Durban 



VOL. XXIX. 



