240 The Flajne- breasted Flozver-peckers. 
niovenients — hopping, darting, and clinging with a very Tit-like 
demeanour. Their food in a state of nature is insects, spiders, 
fruit, buds, and the nectar of flowers. The nest is mostly a purse 
shaped structure, well-woven and felted together, consisting of 
grass, nio.s,s, and white cottony material. The eggs are mostly 
white, some few are reddish and blotched with dark brown. 
At this stage I cannot do better than quote exte?iso — by 
kind permission — from a letter received from my esteemed friend 
Mr. E. W. Harper : — 
" My experience of the Flower-peckers is limited to the 
"Indian ones; and of these I have onh' kept two species in con- 
" finement. viz., the Scarlet-backed (Z)/V^?«w criieiitaluni) and a 
"single specimen of Tickell's etytliroryncJms) — the latter 
" having been kindly presented to me by our mutual friend, Mr. F. 
" Finn. The Tickell's and a pair of the Scarlet-backed ultimately 
" found their way to the London Zoo — a ver}' long journej'' for 
" such wee mites. 
" It is probably owing to the fact that Flower-peckers spend 
" most of their time at the tops of large trees that they are so 
" fearless, and so readily take to confinement. If the hand be 
"placed in a cage containing freshly-caught birds, they .settle on 
" it — a similar thing happening with freshly-caught Humming- 
" birds. Flower-peckers are ravenous eaters ; the first thing they 
"do after capture is to commence to satisfy their voracious 
" appetite — I use the word comtnence intentionally, because they 
never seem to be satisfied ! 
" The Scarlet-backed Flower-pecker sleeps hanging head 
"downwards from the top of the cage — when it has the facility 
" for doing so. The keeper at the Zoo tells me that he has seen 
"the new specimen there in this attitude during the da\', but he 
" cannot say if it sleeps so. I was once sleeping in India with a 
" cage containing some Flower-peckers placed near my bed for 
".safety, when I was suddenly awakened by a great fluttering. 
" Upon getting a light, I found that one of the birds, whilst 
*' hanging asleep by its feet, had had its tliree front toes bitten 
" off by a rat. The poor bird lived long after the accident, with 
"only its hind claw upon one foot. 
" Flower-peckers thrive upon a diet suitable for tlie fruit- 
