1843.] Mr. BlytJis Report for December Meeting, 1842. 977 



the male retaining its bright colours at all seasons. The female 

 is dull-green above, with a slight rufous tinge, and cinnamon-coloured 

 edgings to the greater wing-feathers ; tail dusky-black, and wider- 

 parts less bright yellow than in the male, having the throat and 

 fore-neck albescent. The young, in nestling garb, resemble the female, 

 but have the throat and flanks as yellow as the breast, a streak 

 over the eye more distinct and yellow, and dark hazel irides. This 

 appears also to be the commonest species of the genus in peninsular 

 India, but I have never seen it in collections from the Himalaya, nor is it 

 included among the Nepalese species by Mr. Hodgson. It has a weak 

 shrill chant, delivered in the same key as the song of the British 

 Accentor modularis ; and frequently emits a low weak chirp, that re- 

 cals to mind the analogous note of a Regulus, or of Certhia familiar is. 

 The natives here take them with bird-lime, and after plucking out 

 the wing-primaries to prevent their fluttering, tie them to a stick, 

 and carry rows of them thus about for sale. These may be kept alive 

 for several days on merely sugar and water, and I have heard one 

 sing that had had no other diet for some days ; but raspberry or 

 other fruit-jam is a better kind of food on which to keep these nectar- 

 feeding birds. The members of the present genus, however, by no 

 means confine themselves to a regimen of the kind, and I have taken 

 so large a spider from the stomach of C. Mahrattensis, as to have 

 wondered how it could have been swallowed. Mr. Hodgson, indeed, 

 has even declared that he " entirely doubts their alleged nectarinean 

 diet" find. Rev. I, 273) ; but this is going rather too far, as the facts 

 already stated tend sufficiently to shew. 



According to Mr. Walter Elliot, the present species " builds a 

 hanging nest with an entrance near the top, opening downwards" ; and 

 such is the form of a beautiful fabric before me, which I am assured is 

 the production of this bird : it is attached, nearly throughout its length, 

 to a small thorny twig, and is of an elongated pear-shape, composed 

 chiefly of soft vegetable fibres very densely and neatly interwoven ; on 

 the outside are some coarser strips of grass-leaves, scalings of bark, 

 &c, but the substance and internal lining are constructed of the 

 softest fibres only, which are reflected over the lower portion of the 

 entrance so as to fasten down its rim, imparting thus a neatness of 

 finish to this part of the structure ; above the floor of the entrance is an 



