364 BIRDS OF INDIA. . 



Bill black ; irides dark brown. Length 5h inches ; tail 2^. 



The female is greenish-olive above ; wings and tail darker ; 

 lighter beneath. Length 5 inches ; tail 1. 



This species differ from the last in being somewhat larger, and 

 more robust, with a shorter tail, and by the crescentic metallic 

 blue mark on the ear-coverts. It has also some light yellow striae 

 intersectinof the scarlet of the breast. The tail of the female is 

 almost square. 



Colonel Sykes found it inhabiting the lofty trees of the dense 

 woods of the ghats, and found the larvae of flies, spiders and ants, 

 in its stomach. I never procured this handsome Honey-sucker in 

 the Malabar forests, but I obtained a specimen and saw others in 

 the Bustar country, south-east of Nagpore, in thick forests, at about 

 2,000 feet of elevation. In the absence of any named locality in 

 the Western Ghats, I should suppose it may be from the Maha- 

 bleshwur hills. I am not aware of its having been obtained on that 

 side of India by any other collector, since Colonel Sykes's time. 



To this minor section belongs the Malayan ^E. siparaja, Kaffles, 

 vel mystacalis of Temminck. 



Another small section comprises two species with the whole lower 

 parts bright yellow. In one the tail has the colors of the last sub- 

 division (purple), in the other it is lively red. In one of these 

 species, at all events, the gay plumage is only assumed as a 

 summer dress. The birds are both Himalayan. 



227. .ffithopyga Gouldise, Vigors. 



Cinnyris, apud Vigors, P. Z. S., 1831 — Gould, Cent. Him. 

 Birds, pi. 56— Blyth, Cat. 1353— Hoesf., Cat. 1068. 

 The Purple-tailed Ked Honey-sucker. 



Descr. — Male, with the crown, ear-coverts, and throat, rich glossy 

 violet or purple ; a brilliant shoulder-tuft of the same ; hind-neck, 

 sides of neck, back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, deep crim- 

 son ; upper tail-coverts, the middle pair of tail-feathers, and outer 

 edges of the others, glossy violet or purple ; the rest of the tail 

 dusky ; a yellow band on the rump ; wings dusky, edged with olive- 



