THE BROWN-THROATED SUNBIKD 
Antkreptcs malaccemis malaccensis {Scof>.} 
Description i—HeTf^ again we have a case in which the 
sexes are extremely diflferent in appearance. 
In the male the top of the head, back, rump and tail are 
very dark: held in a certain light they appear almost black 
but they are in reality deep metallie blue or purple. The exact 
shade of colour varies with the incidence of the light and with 
the skin we have in our hand at the rap men t of writing the 
metaJlic blue changes to dark metallic green as we change the 
position of the skin. The wings are blackish-brown with tht 
tipper wing-coverts rnostly dark chestnut. The throat is pale 
reddish brown. The remainder of the underparts are yellow. 
The hen is almost uniformly dull green in plumage, but 
the tindeq>arts are rather more tinged with yellow than the 
upper parts. Young males are very much like the females. 
During the course of the year the females vary consider- 
ably. The feathers become worn and faded and just before 
the moult there is thus a considerable amount of grey in the 
plumage, 
The adults have the i rides reddish brown in colour, the 
beak dark brown and the legs dirty green with the soles of the 
toes yellowish, 
A male measures about 5 inches in length with a wing of 
2 J inches. 
Distribution : —This sunbird which is found in Burma and 
Siam and is common in the Malay Peninsula is also found in 
Borneo, Sumatra and Java> Further east in the Philippines, 
Celebes, Flores, etc., the birds are slightly different, the males 
for instance being much greener on the4>reast than in local, 
males, but they should no doubt all be included under the 
specific name of malaccensis. 
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