Annals of the Transvaal Museum 253 
greenish with yellow, or orange-yellow, pectoral tufts and the tail more 
graduated, though the proportion of length of the tail to the wing is also 
about four-fifths; it comes near to Cyanomitra Rchb., type C. verticalis 
(Latham), of West Africa, but differs in having no metallic coloured patch 
on the head and the proportion of the -length of the tail to the wing greater, 
in Cyanomitra this being less than three-fourths. In the remaining genera, 
when the colour is grey or olive greenish, this is of females and there are 
no pectoral tufts. 
A fairly widely distributed genus is found in Cinnyris afer (L.), which 
I propose to place in a new genus, Notiocinnyris, characterised by its 
relatively large size, second primary rather shorter than the seventh, tail 
over four-fifths of the length of the wing; to this genus would belong the 
species N. ludovicensis, N. stuhlmanni and N . schuhotzi, the first of which 
occurs within our northern limits. Widely distributed, and over practically 
the same ground, is a group of smaller species, which are like the larger 
in colour, but differ slightly in that the middle tail feathers are rather 
longer in males and the second primary is hardly longer than the eighth; 
but the most marked difference is one of size, e.g. wing length in afer, 
irrespective of sex, over 6o mm., in chalyheus of the same localities in the 
largest males not as much as 6o mm. ; and again in stuhlmanni, according 
to Reichenow, the wing length is given as 63-64, in reichenowi of the same 
region only 52-53 mm. It is obvious that we have here a case in which 
we must be guided by the relative difference in size, the lack of structural 
differences seeming to be due to like conditions of environment having 
produced the same effects. Under the circumstances I think it advisable 
to distinguish the smaller group by giving it the name of Microcinnyris 
subg. nov., type Certhia chalyheus L. 
Side by side with the last genus there is another group of small species, 
some of which are even smaller than members of the Microcinnyris sub- 
genus; they differ in having the tail less, or not more than three-fourths, 
of the wing length, males have the abdomen white or yellow instead of 
grey to brown and the scarlet chest-band is replaced by a narrow band 
of dark brown. This group I propose to place in a new genus, Eucinnyris, 
type Cinnyris leucogaster Vieillot; C. venustus and its allies may be ten- 
tatively placed in this genus. 
Passing now to the short-billed species, we find that all of them have 
been lumped together in the Asiatic genus Anthreptes, typified by 
A. malaccensis. The arbitrary nature of this proceeding must be obvious 
to anyone handling specimens from Africa, none of them being structurally 
like the typical species, and I propose therefore to remove them. “Anth- 
reptes” reichenowi Gunning (Journ. S. Afr. Orn. Un. v. 59, 1909) is the 
plainest coloured species, coming near to Cyanomitra verticalis in colour, 
Tut differing in having the bill much shorter; this species I propose to 
place in a new genus, Gunningia, in honour of the late Dr J. W. B. Gun- 
ning, whose progressive policy has left an indelible mark in the founding 
of the large study collection of South African birds in the Transvaal 
Museum, of which he was the first director. The genus is one of the number 
characterised by their olive greenish colour, of which Adelinus has already 
been mentioned. Another genus, differing very markedly in colour, is to 
be found in the plum-coloured Sunbirds, which have the upper parts violet 
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