NECTAKININiE. 3G7 



230. Mtho^ygB. Horsfieldii, Blyth. 



Nectaiinia, apud Blyth, J. A. S. XII., 975— Blyth, Cat. 1356. 

 The Green-backed Honey-sucker. 



Descr. — Whole head and hind-neck, with the throat, brilliantly 

 glossed green and purple ; upper part of the back, scapulars, and 

 wing-coverts, dull olive-green ; the lower back and the rump light 

 yelloAv ; tail, with the upper tail-eoverts, glossy green ; central 

 feathers the same, broadly tipped with black ; the other feathers 

 dusky-black, more or less edged with glossy green ; quills dusky, 

 olive-green on their outer edges ; beneath, from chin, yellow, 

 deeper and tinged with flame-colour on the breast, paler or greenish- 

 yellow on the vent, flanks, thigh-coverts, and under tail-coverts. 



Length 5^ inches ; wing 2|- ; tail 2f ; bill at front | ; tarsus f. 



This species appears to be confined to the North-west Himalayas, 

 where it replaces ^. nipalensis, from which it only differs in 

 having the back green, instead of maroon-red ; in the quills having 

 mostly a white edge, indistinct in the last ; and in being somewhat 

 smaller. These differences, however, appear to be constant ; but 

 the birds may probably interbreed with each other where they 

 meet, as in other closely affined races, and one specimen in the 

 Museum, As. Soc, Calcutta, has some of the feathers of the back 

 partially red. 



The next bird belongs to a group distinguished by rich and 

 dark colouring, more like some of the succeeding genus. 



231. .ffithopyga saturata, Hodgs. 



Cinnyris, apud Hodgson, Ind. Rev. 1837— Blyth, Cat. 1357 

 — Horsf., Cat. 1071 — C. Assamensis, McLell. — Nect. Hodgsonis, 

 Jardine, Nat. Libr., pi. 29. 



The Black-breasted Honey-sucker. 



Descr. — Crown, occiput, nape, moustache, and neck-streak, bril- 

 liant violet-blue ; throat, breast, belly in front, lores, ear-coverts, 

 sides of neck, wings, and rump, deep black ; scapulars and 

 interscapulars dark maroon ; a faint trace of yellow on the rump ; 

 upper tuil-coYcrts, and middle tail-feathers, steel-blue; flanks, 



