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FURPLE-RUMPED LONG-TAILED SUN-BIRD. 
Nectarinia platura, Vieillot. 
PLATE XIX. 
Le Yaillant, in describing this bird, seems to 
have felt that it was an aberrant form, and from 
the resemblance of the hill to that of the warblers, 
gave it the appellation of “ Fiffuier" and it also 
varies from the previously noticed birds in minute 
size of the first quill, as represented in the wood-cut 
at the end of this description ; he only found it in 
the forests of the country of the Namaquois, where 
it gained its subsistence chiefly from the flowers of a 
species of scentless jessamine, which grew in abun- 
dance under the mimosas ; little farther is known 
regarding it, and the nest was not found. Our own 
specimens were received from Southern Africa, but 
without any accompanying information. The total 
length of a male, apparently in’ complete plumage, 
is six inches and eight tenths ; the bill to the fore- 
head, four tenths ; the long caudal feathers surpassing 
the tail by two inches six tenths. The upper parts, 
above the rump, are green, with bronze and slight 
purple reflections ; the rump and tail-coverts violet 
purple ; the throat, fore part of the neck, and upper 
parts of the breast, duck green, with metallic reflec- 
vol. v. o 
