570 CINNYEIS ZEYLONICUS. 



that Jerdon affirms the throat of the young male to be more yellow than that of the female, Captain Shelley states, 

 in his excellent article on this species, that the specimen labelled " Juv. J , Malabar," from which he took his 

 description, had "one metallic-coloured feather on the throat, indicating that it would have assumed the adult 

 male plumage." It is certainly a very interesting character in its plumage that the young male should only differ 

 from the female in the colour of the throat being yellow. I myself obtained a specimen in August which had a 

 metallic throat mingled with yellow feathers ; the plumage of the head and back was mixed with dove-grey 

 feathers, but the amethyst rump was not. I take this bird to have been changing to the adult stage from immature 

 plumage. Indian birds have the bill longer, and are slightly larger than Ceylonese, but do not differ from the 

 latter in the character of their plumage. 

 .Males in Captain Shelley's collection measure 2-15, 2-2, 2-23, 2-25 in the wing ; bill from gape across to tip 0'72, 

 - 75, 065, 0*68. In some the bills are more curved than in my specimens, in others slightly straighter. 



Distribution. — The " Ceylonese Sun-bird " is a very abundant species with us ; it is found throughout the 

 whole island, but is particularly numerous in the western, southern, and lower parts of the Kandyan Province. 

 About Colombo it is one of the most familiar of Ceylon birds, but it likewise frccruents the forests of the 

 interior, and its numbers do not seem to diminish towards the north. I found it tolerably plentiful in the 

 Jaffna peninsula; but Mr. Holdsworth did not meet with it at Aripu, the country, perhaps, there being of too 

 arid a nature for it; it occurs, however, in the south-east of the island, a district inhabited by other typical 

 northern-province birds — Pyrrhulauda grisea, Munia malabarica, Merops swinhoii, and others ; and it is, no 

 doubt, only locally absent from the neighbourhood of Aripu. It inhabits the Trincomalie and Batticoloa 

 districts, and is found throughout the northern forest tract. At Uswewa, in the Puttalam forests, Mr. Parker 

 says it is common ; and adjoining this section of country I have met with it in the Seven Koi'ales. In the 

 north-east monsoon season it ascends to the vicinity of the Nuwara-Elliya plateau, occurring not unfrecpueutly 

 in the Hakgala gardens. I did not see it at Nuwara Elliya ; but I have no doubt that it may occasionally 

 be seen, as a cool-season visitant, in the gardens of the residents there. 



Concerning its distribution in India I cannot do better than subjoin here Mr. Hume's note on the subject 

 which he published (Str. Feath. 1877,p. 270) in reference to Capt. Shelley's article {loc. cit.) : — "It may generally 

 be stated that this species is confined to Southern and Eastern India. It does not occur, as far as we know, 

 in Siudh, Kutch, Kattiawar, Rajpootana, the Punjab, the North-west Provinces, Oudh, Behar, the Central 

 Indian Agency, nor in the major portion of the Central Provinces, though in these latter it has been observed 

 occasionally near Chanda, and is common in the Raipoor and Sumbulpoor districts. It does not extend to 

 any part of British Burmah. It is normally a bird of the heavier rainfall and bettcr-wooded provinces, though 

 it certainly occurs in the comparatively dry uplands of the Deccan. It never ascends any of the mountain- 

 ranges, to the best of our belief, to any considerable elevation, but is essentially a bird of the plains country. 

 With this reservation its range may be said to include Travancore, Cochin, the whole Madras Presidency, 

 Mysore, Hyderabad, the Bombay Presidency south of 20° N. hit., the southern portions of Behar, and the 

 Central Provinces to about the same latitude, Raipoor, and the eastern states of these provinces, Orissa, the 

 tributary Mehals, Chota Nagpur, and Lower Bengal, west of the Burrumpooter. I have never seen it from any 

 of the districts cast of this, i. e. Chittagong, Cachar, Tippcrah, or Sylhet, though at Dacca, immediately west 

 of this river, it is common. Nor have I seen it from Assam, though said to occur there, and though Godwiu- 

 Austcn records a specimen from the Khasya hills." 



Mr. Bourdillon does not appear to have noticed it in the Travancore hills, and the Rev. Dr. Fairbank only 

 obtained it at the eastern base of the Palanis; yet it is common at no inconsiderable elevations in Ceylon. 



Habits. — There is no more beautiful occupant of the bungalow-grounds, which make the environs of 

 Colombo so pretty, than this lovely little creature. Attired in a plumage rivalling in splendour the gorgeous 

 dress of the Humming-birds of South America and the West Indies, it may well be styled a "Humming-bird" 

 by European residents in Ceylon. On almost every fine morning of the year it may be seen coming to the 

 verandahs of the houses in the cinnamon -gardens, where it gathers nectar from the flowers which hang from the 

 trellis-work, or snaps up the ill-starred spider as he diligently draws out his silken web in the rays of the 

 morning sun ; in other grounds equally pleasant, but not provided with such a favourite resort as these 

 luxuriant creepers, it may be observed darting about among the handsome Hibiscus-shruhs, its metallic-plumaged 



