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THE LESSER DOUBLE-COLLARED SUN-BIRD. 
Nedarinia chalybeia, Linnaeus. * 
PLATE I. 
By several early ornithologists, and occasionally 
down to the present time, the two birds from 
Southern Africa, known under the names of Certhia 
chalybeia , Linnaius, and Sucrier a plastron rouge of 
Le Vaillant, have been confounded with each other ; 
and we believe a third may now be added from the 
western coast, which, though closely allied to the 
first, seems to present variations in size and colour- 
ing. As representing the African even-tailed form 
of Nectarinia, where the colours of the lower plu- 
mage are distributed in the form of bands, we shall 
now describe the three birds in their turn. 
This very beautiful species was considered by Le 
Vaillant to be distinct from his “ Sucrier a plastron 
rouge,” though it had been by some authors con- 
founded with it ; and this opinion seems now to 
have been confirmed by most modem ornithologists, 
who generally retain for them the distinguishing 
names of “ Greater and Lesser Collared Sun-birds " 
* The authority, placed after the Latin name of the bird, 
will be understood to refer to the specific name only. 
