;54 



Adult Female. Similar in plumage to C. afer. Total length 4 inches, culmen 07, wing 2"1, tail 1-75, 

 tarsus 065. 



Hab. South Africa. 



The present well-known species is intermediate in size between C. afer and C. chloropygius, to 

 which birds it bears a close affinity, especially to the former, from which, however, it differs in 

 having a much narrower scarlet pectoral band. 



It is confined to South Africa, and is there the commonest and most generally distributed of 

 the Sun-birds ; yet it is in a manner local, being in certain spots replaced by C. afer, from which it 

 differs also somewhat in its habits, preferring the open country, where the low scattered bushes 

 and tufts of grass afford a shelter more congenial to its tastes than the woodland districts. 

 Mr. Layard remarks (B. S. Afr. p. 75): — "This is a very common species about Cape Town 

 and as far as Swellendam ; there it becomes mixed with C. afer, which altogether ousts it in 

 the George and Knysna districts, and supplies its place." 



Mr. Sharpe kindly informs me that Mr. Layard, in his more recent notes sent for the new 

 edition of the ' Birds of South Africa,' corrects his original statement above quoted into 

 '■'partially ousts it in the George and Knysna districts," and further informs us that it breeds 

 in September, and lays two eggs. 



When I was at Mossel Bay, in the latter end of February, it was certainly very abundant 

 there ; and it has been sent home by Mr. Atmore from George, and by Mr. Andersson from the 

 Knysna. 



According to Mr. Layard, in his work above quoted : — " It is one of the boldest and most 

 familiar of all our Sun-birds, frequenting the flower-gardens in the midst of Cape Town, and 

 even venturing into open windows to visit potted plants. Nests, reported to be of this species, 

 have been brought to me — pendent, domed, and porticoed structures, like those of others of the 

 family that I have seen. Eggs, minutely mottled greyish brown : axis 8"', diam. 5^'". I can 

 confirm the statements of my correspondents, having myself taken nests of this species containing 

 eggs and young birds. They are not, however, always pendent, being sometimes supported by 

 twigs, interwoven with the structure. They are composed of cobwebs, stuck over with bits of 

 dead leaves, or chips of bark, always placed on the outside of a bush, never among the branches. 

 I have, however, seen one placed on the side of a bush close to a rock, so that the bird had to 

 fly round the bush to get to it. In appearance they exactly resemble the masses made and 

 collected by one of our commonest (South African) spiders ; and I have more than once seen an 

 inhabited spider's web forming part and parcel of the nest. Whether the nest was built in the 

 web, or whether the spider found it a convenient place and selected it herself, or was brought 

 with a bit of web by the birds, and then took up her abode and enlarged it, I cannot tell ; but 

 there the incongruous allies lived ; and each brought up her own brood, or would have done so, 

 had not I harried them both." 



Concerning its range we are informed by Mr. Andersson (B. Damara Land, p. 69): — " I do 

 not recollect having observed this species north of the Orange river ; but I have not unfrequently 

 met with it in Little Namaqua Land, and I am informed by Mr. Layard that it was brought by 



