232 MELIPHAGID«. 



Genus NECTARINIA, Illiger. 



^ 2 CINNYRIS FRENATA, Mull. 



(Necta/rinia australis, Gould.) 



Australian Sun-bird. 



Gould, Eandhk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 359, p. 584. 



" According to Mr. Rainbird, numbers of this beautiful little 

 Sun-bii'd may be seen on bright mornings, among the leafy tops 

 of the mangrove-belts near Port Denison. They are ever 

 darting out to capture some insect on the wing, returning and 

 disappearing again in the thick foliage, or perching upon some 

 topmost twig to devour their captures, and show their shining 

 purple breasts glittering in the sun. During the hottest part of 

 the day the Sun-birds betake themselves to the thick scrub, which 

 in many places runs down to the water's edge. They breed in the 

 months of November and December. One pair chose a little break 

 in the scrub within a few yards of the water, where facing the 

 rising sun, they constructed thpir nest (which T now have) 

 suspending it by the top from the dead twig of a small shrub, at 

 the foot of a large " Bottle tree " (Sterculia rupestris). The nest 

 is of an oval form, much resembling and suspended in the same 

 way as that of Acanthi^a lineata, with a small hood over the 

 opening, which is near the top. It is composed of fibrous roots 

 and shreds of cotton-tree ( Oomphocarpus fruticosus) bark, firmly 

 interwoven with the webs and cocoons of various spiders, and a 

 few pieces of white sea- weed ornamenting the outside. It is lined 

 with feathers and the silky native cotton, and is about five inches 

 long by three inches and ahalf in diameter." (Ramsay, Ibis, 

 1865, Vol. i., New Series, p. 85.) 



Eggs two in number for a sitting, oval in form somewhat pointed 

 at the smaller end, of a greenish-grey ground colour, which is 

 almost obscured by freckles and dashes of light brown. Two 

 specimens in the Australian Museum Collection measure as follows: 

 length (A) 0'66 x 0-42 inch ; (B) 0-67 x 0-44 inch. 



