1 (>« 



tinted with yellow; bill and legs black; irides dark brown. Total length i' 15 inches, culmen - 7, 

 wing 2 - 2, tail 1"5, tarsus 0"6. 



Adult Female. Similar in plumage to the adult male, excepting that it has no metallic plumes; forehead 

 and crown the same colour as the back ; eyebrow pale yellow ; feathers in front of eye black ; throat 

 yellow, like the breast, but paler towards the chin. Total length 375 inches, culmen 065, wing2 - l, 

 tail 1"35, tarsus 0*55. 



Male in postnuptial plumage. Similar to the female, but with a broad metallic violet band down the centre 

 of the throat. 



Hab. Nicobar Islands, southern extremity of Malay peninsula, and the islands of Sumatra, Sunda, Java, 

 Madura, Lombock, Flores, Borneo, and Labuan. 



This Sun-bird, like C. rhizophorcB, possesses a metallic violet forehead, but is distinguished from 

 that bird by the almost entire absence of the non-metallic pectoral band, and by the deeper-yellow 

 breast. From C. fremitus and C. jugularis it may be readily separated by its metallic crown and 

 the deep-yellow pectoral tufts, and from C. flammaxillaris by the almost entire absence of the 

 non-metallic breast-band, as well as by its well-marked metallic forehead. 



Captain Beavan (Ibis, 1867, p. 322) mentions this species as found in the Andaman Islands, 

 on the authority of a specimen procured by Colonel Tytler in his garden at Port Blair; this 

 specimen should doubtless be referred to C. andamanicus. 



From the Nicobars it has been frequently recorded ; and Mr. Hume observes (Str. F. 1874, 

 p. 196) that, with a series of over forty specimens before him from these islands, he could find no 

 constant difference in the size of the two sexes, but that individuals differed very considerably in 

 their dimensions. "Length 4*0 to 4*75, expanse 6-0 to 6 - 75, wing 2 - to 2*2, tail from vent 1*4 

 to 1-6, tarsus 0-5 to 0-6, bill from gape 0'75 to 0'9, bill at front 0*65 to - 83, weight from 0-25 

 to - 37 ounce. 



" The legs, feet, and bill are black ; the irides brown. 



" In non-breeding plumage the males appear to be similar to the females, except that some 

 of the feathers of the forehead are very narrowly and faintly margined with steel-blue. We 

 procured no male of this species with a central gular stripe, such as the males of A. asiatica, 

 A. anclamanica, Sec. exhibit in non-breeding plumage. 



" In some specimens, both male and female, in worn plumage a great deal of the olive-green 

 lias disappeared off the back, leaving the dull brown basal portion of the feathers the predo- 

 minant tint. 



"Some few of the males in fall breeding-plumage exhibit on the sides of the breast, just at 

 the junction of the steel-blue and yellow, two or three maroon-tipped feathers. 



" Davison remarks : — ' This little honeysucker is very abundant on the Nicobar Islands ; and 

 numbers may always be seen in the tops of the cocoa-nut palms hopping about among the 

 flowers. I have frequently seen the male perch himself on an exposed branch, slightly open his 

 wings, elevate his axillary tufts, and pour forth a feeble, twittering, but pleasing little song.' Of 

 the nidification of this species in the Nicobars, the following brief note by Mr. Davison sums up 

 all we yet know : — ' Although I found several nests of this species, I never obtained the eggs ; 



