Sunbirds in captivity : Past, present and future. 153


In her charming book, ‘ By the Waters of Africa,’ reviewed in this

issue, Miss Lorimer says of an allied species, “ When we have our

lunch on the verandah, the brilliant-plumaged plantain-eater comes

out of his cage and sits on the Governor’s shoulder, and takes pieces

of bread out of his hand. It is a gorgeously beautiful bird, and

quite common in this country. It is long and sleek, and has smooth

feathers of the most dazzling blue; there is not a mark upon it of

any other colour. When it stands quite still on its perch it looks

as if it were made of blue enamel.” On p. 251, she adds, “ One

day we saw two glorious plantain-eaters. They flew across the road

in front of us, with their wings outstretched in the full sunlight.

They were the bluest and most radiant visions imaginable, far

more like the illustrations of birds you see in fairy stories than

the real thing.”—G. R.)



SUNBIRDS IN CAPTIVITY: PAST, PRESENT

AND FUTURE.


By E. Hopkinson, D.S.O., M.B.


The Sunbirds are such a recent addition to the ranks of cage-

birds, among which they are now firmly established, that for their

past history as such, there is no need for search in far-back and

often forgotten records. As a matter of fact most of these are to be

found within the covers of the ‘ Avicultural Magazine,’ and that, too,

since this century began. Years before Sunbirds were dreamt of as

cage-birds, or at any rate when they were no more than a dream, the

Avicultural Society and its Magazine was flourishing ; it saw their

debut, it saw their establishment. May both long continue to

increase and multiply in their respective spheres.


Until we come to about the end of last century, although no

doubt people had been tempted to try to keep these birds in captivity

in their native countries, there is but little recorded of them. The

family is not even mentioned in Dr. Russ’ great work. The earliest,

and indeed the only, mention of any early attempt to keep Sunbirds

in captivity I find, is in the introduction to the Sunbird volume (16)

of Jardine’s ‘ Naturalists’ Library,’ which was published in 1843. Here



