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RED-TAILED SUN-BIRD. 
Nectarinia plttEn'cura. 
PLATE XXIX. 
We have another large and fine tailed species en- 
trusted to us by the Zoological Society. The male 
has the long centre feathers imperfectly developed, 
but entirely exclusive of them is five inches in length. 
The female is within an eight of seven inches to the 
extremity, while her tail measures three and a half 
inches. In the male, the crown and two broad 
maxillary stripes are steel-blue with violet reflec- 
tions ; tho hind-head, back, and sides of the neck, 
rump and upper tail-covers, and outside webs of 
the tail-feathers, bright orange scarlet-red ; the 
rump, dull gamboge-yellow ; the shoulders, sca- 
pulars, and edges of the wing-feathers, oil-green ; 
the quills and secondaries, and inner webs of the 
tail-feathers, umber-brown; the chin and centre of 
the throat and neck, deep velvet-black. The re- 
maining under parts gamboge-yellow, orange in 
the centre of the breast, aud becoming very dull 
and greenish on the vent and tail-coverts. In the 
female the whole upper parts and wings, rump ex- 
cepted, are yellowish oil-green ; on the rump the 
yellow band is marked by dull yellow, and sue- 
