MAELOT'S STJWBIRD. 
Chalcostetha calcQsteiha calcosteiha {Jard.) 
Description : — The male has the top of the head metalhc 
green, sides of the head and the back black; the wiug-covertSi 
lower back, rump and tail metallic violet or green and the 
wing-quills brownish black. On the underparts the chin and 
throat arc metallic brownish-red or perhaps "copper-colour" 
is a better term to use here, the breast metallic blue, abdomen 
black and a conspicuous tuft of bright yellow feathers on each 
side of the body. 
In the female the top of the head is grey, the back and 
wings dull green : the tail all black but some of the feathers are 
tipped with white. The chin and throat dirty white; breast and 
abdomen yellow but not very briglit. 
The iris is brown and the bill and feet black. 
Length about $\ inches ; wing just less than 2^ inches. 
Dktrihuiwn ■.—¥vom the south of Tenasserin and Siam 
down the Malay Peninsula to Borneo, Sumatra and other 
Malaysian islands, * 
Status in S!ngaf>ore i—Ahhough not met with in the 
gardens and in such localities as Bukit Timah and also generally 
speaking not in the woodlands, this is a common species in the 
mangrove and at various points along the coast. It is parti- 
cularly numerous on the small islands lying just off the coast 
of Singapore but not only is thb species local in its distribution 
but it is undoubtedly subject to a certain amount of local 
shifting for sometimes it will be very common in selected places 
and will then in a few weeks disappear. 
Kelham wrote, "Swarms wherever there are coconut 
plantations, particularly if they be on the sea-shore. During 
September 1879, 1 saw literally hundreds of these Honey- 
suckers among the coconut trees at Tanjong Katong, 
Singapore." 
[218] 
