154 



The present species belongs to the yellow-breasted section of the Asiatic " olive-backed " group 

 (Oyrtostomus of Cabanis). In this section there are six very closely allied forms ; but the present 

 one may be recognized at once by its possessing a pale-yellow loral band, as well as a superciliary 

 streak of that colour. It is most nearly related to C.jugularis, and, like that bird, differs from 

 the other members of the group by the pectoral tufts being of the same colour as the breast. 



This species has a very extended range, being found in the Celebes and the Sula Islands. 

 Mr. Wallace has obtained it in Batchian, Morotai or Morty Island, Ternate, Mysol, Ceram, 

 Kaioa Island, and the Aru Islands. I have in my collection a skin said to have come from 

 Gilolo. It is also probably found all over New Guinea, as Count Salvadori received it from 

 Dorey (Bruijn), while Messrs. Petterd and Broadbent obtained specimens near Port Moresby 

 during Mr. O. C. Stone's expedition to New Guinea, and both Signor D'Albertis and Dr. James 

 have met with it in Yule Island. As will be seen below, during the voyage of the ' Rattlesnake,' 

 Mr. Macgillivray procured it in the islands of Torres Straits ; and it is frequent in collections 

 from Cape York, ranging southward into Queensland. 



It is evidently the Sun-bird mentioned by Lesson (Voy. Coq. Zool. i. p. 344) as abundant at 

 Port Praslin (New Ireland), where, according to him, it3 native name is " Sic-sic." It was also 

 collected in New Ireland during the voyage of H.M.S. 'Sulphur,' by Mr. Goodridge, and was 

 described by Mr. Gould under the title of Nectarinia flavigastra from a female specimen ; and in 

 1850 he described the male from the east coast of Australia as N. australis, and even in his later 

 works insists on its being distinct from C.frenatus; but the characters he assigns are not recog- 

 nizable, and, as I have examined many specimens, I have no doubt of the identity between 

 the Australian specimens and those which I have here figured and described from Batchian 

 Island. Mr. E. P. Ramsay, in his "List of birds from Port Denison, Queensland" (Ibis, 1865, 

 p. 85), gives the following very interesting account of its habits : — " According to Mr. Rainbird, 

 numbers of this beautiful little Sun-bird may be seen, on bright mornings, among the leafy tops 

 of the mangrove-belts near Port Denison. They are there ever darting out to capture some 

 insect on the wing, returning and disappearing again in the thick foliage, or perching upon some 

 topmost twig to devour their captures and show their shining purple breasts glittering in the 

 sun. During the hottest part of the day the Sun-birds betake themselves to the thick scrub, 

 which in many places runs down quite to the water's edge. They breed in the months of 

 November and December. One pair chose a little break in the scrub, within a few yards of the 

 water, where, facing the rising sun, they constructed their nest, suspending it by the top from 

 the dead twig of a small shrub, at the foot of a large ' Bottle-tree ' (Stcrculia rupestris). The 

 nest is of an oval form, much resembling and suspended in the same way as that of Acanthiza 

 lineata, with a small hood over the opening, which is near the top. It is composed of fibrous 

 roots and shreds of cotton-tree (Gomphocarpus fruticosus) bark, firmly interwoven with the webs 

 and cocoons of various spiders, and a few pieces of white sea-weed ornamenting the outside. It 

 is lined with feathers and the silky native cotton, and is about 5 inches long by 3J inches in 

 diameter." 



I must now refer to Mr. Gould's ' Handbook to the Birds of Australia,' from which I shall 

 quote at some length. Mr. Macgillivray writes to him: — "This pretty Sun-bird appears to be 

 distributed along the whole of the north-east coast of Australia, the adjacent islands, and the 



