564 CINNFRIS LOTENIUS. 



Purple Indian Creeper, Etlw. Glean, pi. 265 ; Le Soui-manga pourpre, Buffon ; Lotens Creeper, 

 Polished Creeper, Green-gold Creeper, Latham ; The Large Purple Honeysucker, Jerdon ; 

 Humming-bird, Long-billed Sun-bird, Europeans in Ceylon. 



Ran sutika, Modara sutika, Gewal kurulla, Sinhalese ; Tahn-kudi, Ceylonese Tamils ; Tutika, 

 Portuguese in Ceylon. 



Adult male. Length to forehead 4-2 to 4-3 inches ; bill along the oilmen about l - 2, from gape across the arc to tip 



1-1 to 1-13 ; wing 2-2 to 2-4 ; tail 1*8 ; tarsus 0-6; middle toe and claw 0-5 ; hind toe 0-3, claw (straight) 0-15. 

 Iris brown, variable in shade ; bill, legs, and feet black. 



Breeding plumage. Head, upper surface, lesser wing-coverts, and cheeks deep metallic green, glossed with purple in a 

 contrary light ; wings and greater coverts umber-brown ; tail black, the edges of the feathers glossed with purplish 

 towards the base ; chin and centre of throat didl metallic purple, contrasting with the bright green of the cheeks, 

 and deepening into metallic lilac on the chest, where it is bounded beneath by a narrow band of maroon-red; breast 

 and lower parts uniform smoke-brown; a brilliant yellow tuft on each side of the breast, streaked in some examples 

 with orange-red. 



Winter plumage. After breeding the male bird moults, almost entirely assuming the plumage of the female, with the 

 exception of a dark metallic stripe down the fore neck, and the lesser wing-coverts, which remain green ; during the 

 change the plumage is mingled fantastically with feathers of both dresses : one specimen I have examined in 

 change has the upper surface a darker brown than a female, the upper tail-coverts tipped with green and the 

 breast and flanks striped with brown ; there is likewise a metallic purple band across the back. 



Female. Length to forehead 3-8 inches ; bill from gape, across arc to tip, 1-0 ; wing 2-15 ; tail 1*6. 



Iris, bill, and legs as in the male. 



Above glossy olive-brown, somewhat darker on the rump than on the back ; wings darker brown, the inner webs darker 

 than the outer, which have fine pale edges ; tail black, the two outer pairs of feathers tipped deeply with dull 

 white, the rest, with the exception of tin- middle pair, slightly less so ; beneath dull sulphur-yellow, darkening into 

 greyish on the flanks, the yellow of the fore neck abruptly set off down the sides of the neck against the brown 

 of the upper surface ; under wing-coverts yellowish white. 



05s. Ceylon birds of this species are a very little larger, have the bill slightly longer and more curved than, and have 

 not the pectoral tufts so much striped with orange as the Indian race. Captain Shelley does not consider these 

 differences of sufficient weight to entitle our bird to specific rank ; and in this I agree with him. A South-Indian 

 male specimen which I have examined measures 2-18 in the wing and 1*06 across the bill from gape to tip, and 

 the bill is straighter than in Ceylonese birds ; a female has it similarly shaped. The figure of the male bird in 

 Captain Shelley's splendid monograph shows the orange markings of the pectoral tufts as they exist in Indian birds. 



Distribution. — Loten's Sun-bird is very common in the Western Province, from Puttalam down the coast 

 to Galle and Matara, and inhabits the interior of that side of the island as well in considerable numbers. It is 

 fond of a damp climate, as on travelling round to the dry south-eastern district I found it much less common; 

 it being mostly replaced in that part by the next species. It is found generally throughout the Kaudyan 

 Province up to about 3000 feet; but in Uva ranges to a higher altitude, and ascends from the Fort-Macdonald 

 patnas, in the north-east monsoon, as high as the Hakgala gardens, in which Mr. Thwaites tells me he has 

 observed it. I have not heard of its being seen at Nuwara Elliya ; but if it has been rightly identified at 

 I lakgala, it doubtless occurs there occasionally. It occurs on the Morowak-Korale hills. In the north it is 

 much less numerous than C. asiaticus; and Mr. Holdsworth remarks that he never saw it in the Aripu district. 



Jerdon writes of this species, " It is common on the Malabar coast, and also tolerably so in the more 

 wooded parts of the Carnatic, as about Madras and other large towns." Messrs. Hume and Davison write to 

 Captain Shelley that it is not found north of lat. 15° in the Indian peninsula, and, further, that " it is a bird of 

 the plains, and does not ascend the hills, but is common in localities such as Calicut, Trinchinopoly, Salem, and 

 Madras itself." 



In common with several other species, this bird owes its introduction to the scientific world to Governor 

 Lotcn, who sent home the type specimens from Ceylon, and after whom it was named. 



