

Adult Male. Forehead, crown, and nape metallic golden-green; sides of the head and neck and the upper 

 half of the back and the scapulars black ; least series of wing-coverts, smaller scapulars, lower half of 

 the back, and the upper tail-coverts steel-blue with green and violet reflections ; remainder of the wings 

 black ; tail blue-black, the feathers edged with steel-blue ; chin and throat rich metallic lilac ; chest 

 deep red ; abdomen, under tail-coverts, and under surface of the wings black ; bill and legs black ; 

 irides dark brown. Total length 4 inches, culmen 0'55, wing 1'9, tail l - 2, tarsus 05. 



Adult Female. Upper parts olive-yellow ; an indistinct narrow yellow eyebrow ; wings brown, the least and 

 median scries of coverts edged with olive-yellow, the greater coverts with pale brown, and the quills 

 with brownish yellow; tail black, the feathers slightly edged with olive, and with broad pale ends to 

 the three outer feathers on each side ; underparts pale yellow, slightly tinted with olive ; bill and legs 

 black ; irides dark brown. Total length 3'5 inches, culmen 0-5, wing T75, tail l'l, tarsus 0"5. 



Hab. Hill Tippcrah and Chittagong, Arracan, Southern Burmah, Tenasserim, the entire Malay peninsula, 

 and the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. 



The " Nectarophila " group, to which the present species belongs, comprises four brilliantly 

 coloured eastern species, which have the metallic portions, as in the " Hermotimia " group, 

 confined to the crown, throat, wing-coverts, lower back, and upper tail-coverts. They constitute 

 the genus Leptocoma of Cabanis, a name which, having been previously employed in botany, was 

 changed by Reichenbach into Nectarophila. The true position of this group is evidently between 

 the black-coloured group (Hermotimia, Reichenbach) and the " Asiatic olive-backed group " 

 ( ( 'yrtostom us, Cabanis). 



Van Hasselt's Sun-bird may be distinguished from the other members of the " Nectaro- 

 phila" group by its having the upper back and the abdomen black, and the chest deep red. 



It is a widely spread and rather common species. In Arracan it has been collected by Sir 

 Arthur Phayre, whose specimens formed the types of Nectarinia phayrei, Blyth. In Tenasserim 

 it has been procured by Captain Beavan at Moulmein, in the valley of the lower course of the 

 Salween river, where it was found by him feeding on the low flowering shrubs (P. Z. S. 1866, 

 ]). 543); and he further informs us (Ibis, 1869, p. 420) that at Moulmein, where he procured it in 

 a garden on the 30th of August, it was apparently rather rare. " Its note is a low piping call." 

 According to Mr. Hume (Str. F. 1874, p. 473) it is rare in that province between Om-ben-gwen 

 and Tavoy. Messrs. Hume and Davison write to me : — " The head quarters of this lovely species 

 seems to be the extreme south of Tenasserim. About Mergui, and between Mergui and the 

 Pakchan estuary, it was common to a degree, frequenting principally the gardens and cocoanut- 

 palms, but found also occasionally in forest, where this is not too thick, and in the mangroves that 

 everywhere about Mergui fringe the interminable labyrinths of creeks. Northward we obtained 

 it at Tavoy and Ye, but did not observe it further north in Tenasserim, though it has been 

 obtained at Molmein, where, however, it is rare ; neither have we received it from Pegu ; but it 

 again appears in the Arracan hills, Chittagong. and Hill Tippcrah, from whence many specimens 

 were sent us long ago by the late Mr. Irvine. 



"As far as we can judge from our very large series, killed at different times, this species has 

 no distinctive non-breeding plumage. 



" This species is a true Honeysucker, feeding almost exclusively on nectar ; and its note, like 



