Adult Female. Upper parts ashy brown ; the sides of the head of the same colour, with a broad but rather 

 indistinct buff eyebrow ; wings dark brown, the feathers with pale ashy brown edges ; tail black with 

 a green gloss, and with white tips to some of the feathers, broadest on the outer ones ; beneath creamy 

 white, shaded with yellow towards the base of the throat and on the centre of the breast ; under surface 

 of the wings ashy brown, with the coverts and the inner margins of the quills white. Total length 

 3-8 inches, culmen 07, wing 2 - 15, tail T4, tarsus 06. 



Male in moult (1st stage). Similar in plumage to the adult female, excepting that it has a rather narrow 

 metallic violet band down the centre of the throat. 



Male in moult (2nd stage). Similar in plumage to the last, excepting that it has the lesser wing-coverts and 

 a portion of the lower back metallic, and the dark band on the throat extends to about halfway down 

 the breast. 



Hab. Ceylon; India, northward to the Himalayas; westward it extends through Sindh and Baluchistan to 

 the confines of Persia, and is possibly to be found in Southern Arabia.' To the eastward it ranges 

 through Assam, Tipperah, Chittagong, Arracan, Burmah, and Tenasserim, but in this direction has not 

 been collected southward of the river Ye. 



Obs. In about half the adult males which I have examined there is present a more or less distinct reddish 



brown pectoral band. This character occurs quite irrespectively of the locality whence the specimens 



came ; nor is there auy corresponding difference in the measurements and general shade of the metallic 



parts, which vary considerably in some individuals. 

 A typical specimen of Arachnechthra intermedia, Hume, from Tipperah differs from the adult male above 



described in having the metallic parts more strongly glossed with violet, and the pectoral band present. 



Total length 4 - 4 inches, culmen 0'7, wing 2'2, tail 1*55, tarsus 06. 

 A typical specimen of A. brevirostris , Blanford, collected by that gentleman at Bampoor, in Baluchistan, 



and now in the British Museum, differs in having the metallic parts more strongly glossed with green. 



It has no pectoral band. Total length 4T inches, culmen 055, wing 22, tail T6, tarsus 0'6. 

 I have examined a very large series of adult males, including three typical specimens of Mr. Hume's 



A. intermedia, and four of A. brevirostris, Blanford ; and it appears to me quite evident that all these 



specimens belong to one species. 

 The " adult male " and the " male in moult (2nd stage) ," which I have here described, were collected by 



Sir W. Elliot in Madras. The "adult female" was collected by Dr. Hinde at Kamptee, and the 



"male in moult (1st stage)" from Nepaul. All of these specimens are in the British Museum. The 



illustrations are drawn from specimens in the collection of the Marquis of Tweeddale, and represent the 



adult male and female and the male in moult. 



The " dark metallic group " of Sun-birds includes the typical species of Cinnyris. It seems to 

 me to be a very natural group, in which, however, the distribution of the colour is of more value 

 than the length and curvature of the bill, or the form of the tail. 



At some time or another the larger portion of these species have been separated off as types 

 of genera, founded mostly upon the last-named characters, which, however, are so variable as to 

 be little reliable. I propose to assemble the species into one group, which may be thus simply 

 characterized : — head, neck, and back of metallic colours ; abdomen black or dark brown. The 

 only species of another group which corresponds in these characters is Nectarinia tacazze, a bird 

 which, in my opinion, forms the connecting link between Nectarinia and Cinnyris. 



The present very common Indian species may be at once recognized by its having the upper 



x2 



