2 MALAYAN OENITHOLOGY. 



of the many pig- tracks leading inland. Before I got far from the 

 river, I noticed a small plainly-coloured bird clinging to a pendent 

 creeper, fluttering its wings and uttering a shrill piercing cry, and, 

 on shooting it, found I had killed a specimen of A. modesta. On 

 dissection it proved to be a female. Length 7 J inches, bill along 

 ridge 1 1 ; irides brown ; legs and bill flesh-colour, upper mandible 

 of latter dusky; upper parts, wings and tail yellowish green; 

 feathers of the last dark-tipped, and having a white spot ou one 

 web ; feathers of the crown scaly and dark-centred ; underparts 

 pale green. It had been feeding on beetles." 



^Etiiopyga siparaja (Eaffl.). The Scarlet Honey-sucker. 



Though I saw this brilliantly-coloured bird on two occasions, 

 once on Pulau Batam, and once on Pulau Ubin, islands near Singa- 

 pore, I am only able to record as actually obtained a single specimen, 

 a male, shot by a brother-officer among some cocoa-nut trees near 

 Bukit Timah, on 2nd of August, 1879. There were a pair of them 

 picking out insects from among the cocoa-nuts ; those I saw on the 

 islands were similarly employed. 



Chalcostetha ixstgnis (Jard.). 



Swarms wherever there are cocoa-nut-plantations, particularly 

 if they be on the sea-shore* During September, 1879, I saw 

 literally hundreds of these Honey-suckers among the cocoa-nut 

 trees at Tanjong Katong, Singapore. I also, at different times, got 

 many specimens in Pulau Batam, Pulau Ubin, Province Wellesley, 

 and Malacca. 



In Singapore, a favourite resort of mine was a plantation near 

 Tanglin, where I passed many an afternoon among these little 

 birds, which were so plentiful that I had every opportunity of 

 observing them and their ways, as flitting from tree to tree, they 

 dodged about among the clusters of cocoa-nuts, at one moment 

 hanging head downwards, searching among the leaves and stalks 

 for flies, spiders, and other small game, the next, hovering with 

 quickly fluttering wings to pick out of its hiding-place some insect 

 not otherwise to be got at. TJie male has a shrill piping note, and 

 i.s far the most beautiful of the sexes, the female being dull-coloured 

 and without the rich metallic markings. During August, I noticed 

 that the young were in great numbers, and saw some being fed by 



