379 



note is frequently heard; this assembly call has nothing musical in it — but is quaint, if not 

 actually pleasing. 



Mr. Layard, in his 'Birds of South Africa,' gives the following account: — "This Honey- 

 eater differs considerably in all its habits from the Sun-birds with which it is associated. It is 

 generally found in small parties, the members of which, though acting much in concert, still 

 maintain their individuality. They follow one another to favourite bushes, chase each other or 

 feed amicably side by side ; and if one is alarmed and flies off, the rest generally follow ; yet they 

 cannot be called gregarious in the strict sense of the word. They are fond of perching on the 

 summit of high bushes, particularly Proteacece, from the flowers of which they extract their food, 

 consisting of insects and the limpid saccharine juice which these plants supply plentifully, and 

 which will often run in a copious stream from the bill of a fresh-killed specimen. 



" Levaillant states that it constructs a hemispherical nest in the largest Protect bushes, 

 covered externally with moss or lichen, and lined with hair and wool. The eggs he describes as 

 olivaceous ; but my son procured a nest, which he assures me belonged to this bird, cup-shaped, 

 about three inches in diameter within, composed of rootlets, grasses, and the spicular leaves of 

 fir, mingled with the silky dark orange seeds of the Protect. The single egg contained in it 

 instantly reminded me of the Bunting of England, being a pale dirty cream-colour, irregularly 

 though sparingly marked with wavy tracery and hair streaks, now and then inclining to blotches 

 of a dark purple-brown, or a pale indistinct purple; axis 11 lines, diameter 8^ lines. 



" Subsequent discoveries of nests and eggs confirm the truth of my son's observations. I 

 find they breed in the months of May, June, July. Mr. W. Atmore informs me that he has 

 found many nests, always cup-shaped, and placed in the fork of a mimosa." 



Mr. Rickard found it at Port Elizabeth, where, he remarks, it is common when the red 

 Protect is in flower, and breeds there, but does not stay all the year. 



M. Levaillant endeavoured to keep this species as a cage bird, and during his stay at the 

 Cape had several alive, which were easily tamed. For food he gave them each day flowers ol 

 the Protect while such could be obtained, or else those of a large orchid with yellow blossoms, 

 which, he remarks, is a very favourite plant with the Sun-birds ; when flowers were no longer to 

 be procured, he fed them with honey and water, and had the satisfaction of seeing them dive 

 their long bills into the chalice of the flowers or into the glass to suck the sweet fluid. This 

 species was one of those which kept alive for the longest time while at sea on his way to 

 Europe. 



The length of tail, which varies in different specimens, depends upon the age of the indi- 

 vidual and the season more than on the sex. The specimen figured and described is a male 

 procured by myself at Cape Town on the 7th of February ; and the measurements of the adult 

 female and of two probably young birds are taken from specimens shot out of the same flock or 

 family party, which consisted of six individuals. 



