LITERATURE. 



In reviewing the literature of the family Nectarmiidse I follow the plan adopted by Mr. Sharpe 

 in his ' Monograph of the Kingfishers,' as his arrangement appears to me to be a clear and 

 simple one ; and I commence therefore with Linnseus's twelfth edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' 

 (1766). Some of the species named by Linnseus were already figured or described by the older 

 authors, such as Seba, Edwards, and Brisson ; and it is on their descriptions that some of the 

 Linnean species were founded. As the works of these authors are anterior to the year 1766, the 

 recognized starting-point of ornithological literature, I have not specially analyzed the birds 

 described in them ; but their names will all be found quoted in the detailed synonymy of the 

 species mentioned in the present work. 



1766. Linnaeus, C. Systema Naturae, vol. i (8vo, Holmise), pp. 158-188. 



The Sun-birds are placed in the genus Certhia, of which he recognizes twenty-five species, 

 fifteen of these belong to the present family ; but only the following eleven titles can be 

 adopted: — 7, Certhia jugularis ; 10, C.chalybea; 11, C.afra; 13, C. sperata; 14, C. senegalensis ; 

 15, C. gutturalis; 19, C. jmlchella; 20, C. famosa; 22, C. violacea; 23, C. zeylonica; 25, C. lo- 

 tenia. Four cannot be determined, viz. : — 3, C. pusilla, a female or immature male (founded on 

 the Little Brown and White Creeper, Edwards's Birds, i, pi. 26) ; 4, C. capensis, a female or imma- 

 ture male, possibly of Cinnyris chalyleus (founded on Le Grimpereau du Cap de Bonne Esperance, 

 Briss. Orn. iii, p. 618, pi. 13, fig. 1) ; C. currucaria, an immature male or male in partial moult, 

 possibly of Cinnyris asiaticus ; 21, 0. philippina (founded on Le Grimpereau des Philippines, Briss.) 

 probably = Cinnyris jugularis 2 ■ 



1769. Scopoli, J. A. Annus. I. Historico-naturalis (12mo, Ticini), p. 52. 



Certhia viridis I formerly referred to Cinnyris afer ; but I am now of opinion that it is not 

 a Sun-bird at all. 



1770-86. Daubenton. Planches Enluminees (folio, Paris). 



Figures, moxe or less well executed, are given of certain Sun-birds, to which only French 

 names are attached. Subsequent naturalists, however, founded specific names on some of the 

 plates, which are quoted below. 



1773. Muller, P. L. S. Systema Naturae, vol. ii (8vo), pp. 255-260, 264. 



This naturalist gives Latin names to certain of the ' Planches Enluminees ' of Daubenton ; 

 and as the latter are for the first time here included in an edition of Linnaeus, many of the 



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