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rCINNYRIS KIBKIL 



(EASTERN AMETHYST SUN-BIRD.) 



Nectarinia amethystina, Kirk, Ibis, 1864, p. 320. 



<3 a<£. similis C. amethystino, sed supracaudalibus haud aniethystinis distinguendus. 



2 «^. similis fcernmae C. amethystini sed minor. 



Hab. in Africa orientali. 



Adult Male. General plumage blackish brown with a lilac gloss ; wings and tail with a strong coppery bronze 

 shade ; forehead and crown metallic green ; the least wing-coverts metallic lilac, more or less glossed 

 with steel-blue ; chin and throat metallic lilac ; under surface of the wings coppery bronze, with the 

 coverts black; beak and legs black; irides dark brown. Total length 4"8 inches, culmen 0'95, wing 

 2"55, tail l - 85, tarsus 065. 



Adult Female. Similar in plumage to the female of C. amethystinus. 



Hab. Eastern Africa. 



Obs. This species differs from C. amethystinus in being rather smaller, and in the male having the upper 

 tail-coverts blackish brown like the back, with no portion of them metallic. 



I have founded this new species of Sun-bird upon an adult male specimen in the British Museum, 

 collected by Dr. Kirk in the Zambesi district. It is the East-African representative of C. ame- 

 thystinus, from which bird it may be readily distinguished by its having no metallic colours on 

 the upper tail-coverts, while it is also smaller. In the same museum there is an immature male, 

 collected by Dr. Kirk at Shupanga in April 1862, which presents the same characters; and a 

 female from Mombas in Mr. Sharpe's collection, obtained by Mr. Wakefield, though measuring 

 5 - 3 inches in total length, is similar in its other measurements to the male above described : 

 otherwise I can recognize no distinctive characters between it and the female of C. amethystinus. 



To this latter species it is so closely allied that its habits are, no doubt, similar. The only 

 authentic information on this point referable to this species is the following, given by Dr. Kirk 

 (Ibis, 1864, p. 320): — "Native name 'Sungwe.' The Sun-birds are abundant in open ground 

 covered with low, flower-bearing bushes, such as Poivreas, Dalbergias, Acacias, &c. ; and they 

 frequent especially such plants as the Leonitis, searching inside the corolla for insects, and 

 probably sucking the saccharine juices. Before the rains they lose the fine plumage, and 

 become of a dull mixed colour. December is the breeding-season; nests have been observed 

 among the grass, attached to its stalks, and in the bashes. The young birds may be kept for 

 some time upon honey or sugar and water, which they lick up greedily from a straw or the 

 corolla of a plant; but the absence of insect food probably causes them to die." 



Nectarinia amethystina of the ' Vogel Ost-Afrika's ' of Drs. Finscli and Hartlaub should 



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