VIOLET-HEADED SUN-BIRD. 201 
paler, and of a more yellow tint beneath. The 
young of both sexes nearly resemble each other, 
and are above greyish olive, beneath yellowish. The 
species is abundant in the vicinity of the Cape, but 
it delights in the more mountainous districts, and 
only descends to the gardens during the season of 
the flowers, and while tho orange trees are in 
blossom. The male has a quick, lively, and agree- 
able warble. The nest is placed in thick bushes, 
formed of the down of plants, and covered exteriorly 
with lichens or fine moss. The eggs are white, 
mottled with minute brown dots. Latham says the 
structure of the nest is loose and artificial. 
The tail, in the Yiolet-headed Sun-hird of Africa, 
is regularly graduated, and we have the form con- 
tinued in several species from Continental India, 
where it prevails, and also exists in a more deve- 
loped manner in some lovely birds sent to us 
from Nipaul by Mr. Hodgson, and which we shall 
immediately describe and figure from his specimens ; 
but in doing this, let it be distinctly understood 
that we do so with no wish to interfere with his 
discoveries; and we cannot help expressing our 
regret to see that gentleman daily deprived of the 
merit of his extensive researches in ornithology by 
the arrival of insulated specimens, when we know 
that for some years large remittances collected by 
him, containing hundreds of new species, have con- 
tinued hidden in the keeping of his friends. In 
some of these Indian species the centre feathers 
become much more elongated, and seem to lead 
