INTRODUCTION. 



I believe that my first attraction towards the family of Sun-birds took place in Nubia, where I 

 fell in with Medydi'pna metallica, the first truly tropical form of bird that I had ever procured. 

 The sense of pleasure with which I preserved my first specimens of this beautiful little species on 

 the banks of the Nile above the First Cataract, and the engaging habits of the species, impressed 

 me so much, that on all my subsequent visits to the African continent I paid especial attention 

 to the Sun-birds in each country I visited. At that time, in the year 1870, I believe that both 

 the late Marquis of Tweeddale and Mr. Bowdler Sharpe contemplated the production of a 

 Monograph of the Nectariniida? ; and it was only on their making no signs in this direction that, 

 after the lapse of some years, I commenced to write the present work. If I have succeeded in 

 reducing the family to a better state of order than it before exhibited, it is in a great measure 

 due to the kindly assistance which I have received from ornithologists in all parts of the world, 

 while at the same time I feel that I have left no stone unturned, nor spared any pains in my 

 endeavour to make my Monograph as complete as circumstances would allow. 



The chief difficulty which lies in the path of an ornithological student in the present day 

 arises from the vast increase in the literature of the Class of Birds which has taken place during 

 the last twenty years : as regards species, many are described by authors who do not sufficiently 

 master the subject, and thus needlessly add to the already overburdened synonymy of birds ; 

 while as regards genera the case is still worse ; for there seems to be a growing tendency to 

 recognize style of colour and slight peculiarities of plumage as generic characters, when there is 

 no structural difference to define such genera clearly to the mind's eye. Professor Schlegel and 

 Dr. Finsch have both of them waged war against this practice ; and if they seem to have erred a 

 little on the other side, and to have been guilty of too great a compression, it is better to have 

 widely comprehensive genera which possess the advantage of definition, than a multitude of 

 generic names which are capable of no definition whatever. On the principle of admitting none 

 but definable characters for genera, Mr. Sharpe worked out his Monograph of the Kingfishers ; 

 and it is by no means encouraging to observe how his careful studies have been ignored by many 

 subsequent writers, who have revived for the Kingfishers many genera which Mr. Sharpe had 

 suppressed on the grounds that no structural characters for their separation were forthcoming. 

 Every naturalist is at liberty, of course, to hold his own opinion ; but it appears to me that in 

 consulting a Monograph, which is in most cases the result of years of study of a whole group 



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