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CINNYBIS MINIMUS. 573 



Distribution.— The only records which we have of the occurrence of this lovely little bird in Ceylon are 

 contained in the catalogues of Messrs. Layard and Holdsworth. The former says Nectarinia zeylonica is 

 replaced in the north by N. minima, and the latter states that it " is occasionally seen about Colombo." For 

 my own part I searched diligently for it the whole time I was in the island, but never saw it and never met 

 with any one who was acquainted with it. It does not certainly occur in the Trincomalie district, and on 

 two visits to Jaffna I failed to observe it; so that I am led to believe that Layard, when he used the word 

 north, referred to Pt. Pedro, where he resided. I have not visited Pt. Pedro ; but in other parts of the Jaffna 

 peninsula I found the last species common enough. My friends Messrs. F. Gordon and W. Murray, who 

 have both collected much in Jaffna, have never met with it to my knowledge ; and up till the receipt of my 

 latest advices it had not been obtained at Colombo by any one since I left the island in 1877. It is therefore 

 strange that Layard found it so common as to replace C. zeylonicus in the north. Its occurrence in Ceylon is 

 one of the many points which require attention at the hands of naturalists in Ceylon. 



Messrs. Hume and Davison state that it is common in all the hilly tracts of the peninsula, in the Ghats, 

 as at Matheran (above Bombay), and Mahabaleshwar, all over the Nilghiris, in the Wynaad, and the hills of 

 South Travancore. In this latter locality Mr. Bourdillon found it common at the edges of forest; and 

 Dr. Fairbank observed it from. 4000 feet to the top of the Palanis ; he likewise records it from the western 

 slopes of the Ghats at Khandala, Mahabaleshwar, and the Goa frontier. 



Habits. — From the writings of naturalists in India we gather some information of considerable interest 

 touching the economy of the Tiny Sun-bird. Mr. Bourdillon remarks as follows : — " It is slightly gregarious 

 in habit, three or four hunting about together amongst the boughs of some gamboge-tree, which is a tree 

 they seem particularly to like. They are not at all shy, and when sitting quiet in brushwood I have seen 

 them perch inquisitively within a few feet of my face." The following interesting account is from the notes 

 supplied to Capt. Shelley by the writers already mentioned : — ■ 



" Though not strictly migratory, this species moves about a great deal ; and though there are places in the 

 Neilgherries, at elevations of 5000 or 6000 feet, where some may be seen at all seasons of the year, the 

 mass of them move higher in summer, and descend a great deal lower in the winter. Thus in the Chinchona 

 plantations at Neddivuttum, at an elevation of about 6000 feet, some specimens may be seen at all seasons ; 

 but it is not till the first burst of the south-west monsoon, between the 10th and 15th of June, that a single 

 bird is to be seen higher up at Ootacamund. After this they swarm in every garden where there are flowers, 

 and especially about the apple-blossoms of the orchards. By the end of October they have all left Ootaca- 

 mund, and have descended to a lower level, while, again, in January and February they abound at the base of 

 the hills, as in the Moyar valley, in the Wynaad. 



" They are very restless, active little birds, hopping about ceaselessly from twig to twig and flower to 

 flower, and using their legs probably more than their wings, keeping up all the time a soft uninterrupted 

 chip, chip, chip ; very rarely, if ever, are they seen poised Humming-bird-like in front of any flower. So far 

 as our observations go they always perch to feed, and probably feed quite as much on insects as on nectar. 

 They may be often found in low brushwood, especially in the thickets of the wild raspberry and along the 

 outskirts of all the sholas, or strips of jungle which run down every ravine on the hill-side. About the 

 Chinchona plantations they are so numerous when the trees are in flower in November, you might probably 

 shoot a dozen specimens any morning off a single tree." 



Nidifi cation. — Mr. Davison writes to Mr. Hume ('Nest and Eggs,' 1874, p. 150) that the Tiny Honey- 

 sucker breeds on the slopes of the Nilghiris in September and during the early part of October. " I have 

 seen," he says, " young birds only just able to fly about the middle of October. The nest is suspended to a 

 twig about 4 or 5 feet from the ground ; it is similar both in shape and materials to that of Leptocoma zeylonica, 

 but considerably smaller. They lay two eggs." Mr. Hume describes the eggs as " perfect miniatures of some 

 of the eggs of Arachnechthra asiatica ; in shape they are somewhat elongated ovals, a good deal compressed 

 towards one end. They have scarcely any gloss. The ground-colour is dull greenish or greyish white, and 

 it is thickly speckled and mottled all over, mostly so towards the larger end (where the spots have a 

 tendency to become confluent and form a zone), with dull greyish white and olivaceous brown. The eggs 

 measure - 62 by - 42 inch." 



