Birds of Celebes: Neetariniidae. 
453 
feathered, no nasal or rictal bristles; wing moderate, first primary generally 
small; tail never forked, either square, rounded, graduated, or with the two 
middle feathers much lengthened; tarsus and toes moderate. 
Capt. Shelley (1876 — 1880) recognises 3 subfamilies: Neodrepaninae, with 
“the first primary longer than the seventh and cut away on the inner web towards 
the tip; sides of the head in adult males wattled” — consisting of a single 
species occurring in Madagascar; Nectariniinae and Arachnotherinae with the first 
primary the shortest, and no wattles. Mr. Oates diagnoses these latter sub- 
families as follows: — Nectariniinae: “sexes different; plumage of male in part 
metallic; bill slender; nest pensile”; Arachnotlminae “sexes alike; plumage non- 
metallic; bill large; nest cup-shaped, attached by a portion of the rim to a broad 
leaf”. The affinities of Promerops, included by Shelley in the family, are 
doubtful (Newton). 
The Sun-birds inhabit the Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian Regions. 
The males of many of the genera differ in coloration wonderfully from 
one another and from their females, yet the general similarity of the females 
of these genera to one another and the correspondence of the young male with 
the female shows that the males only have departed greatly from an original 
type. Celebes and the satellite island-groups are peopled with 5 genera ■ — • 
Aethopyga (Oriental — not in Australasia), Eudrepanis (Fhilippines and Great 
Sangi only), Cyrtostomus (generally distributed among the East India Islands), 
Hermotimia (not found west of Celebes, the Sangi and Talaut Islands), Anthreptes 
(Oriental , not known east of the Sula Islands and Timor). The Oriental 
affinities of Celebes are therefore stronger in this family than the Australian, 
3 genera being found in the Great Sunda Islands and S. E. Asia, and only 
one, Hermotimia, being Moluccan and Papuasian; and even in this last genus 
the Celebesian species are so closely allied to Nectarophila hasselti of Burmah to 
Borneo that a line is drawn here only^ for the sake of convenience not because 
a sufficient natural gap is found. 
GENUS AETHOPYGA Cab. 
Distinguishable by the strongly graduated tail of the male (the two middle 
feathers sometimes much lengthened), and by its yellow rump. 
Found from the Himalayas to the Philippines, Celebes, and Java. 
* 179. AETHOPYGA FLAVOSTKIATA (Wall.). 
Celebes Scarlet-breasted Sun-bird. 
a. Cinnyris sp. (1) Wall., Iliis 1860, 140. 
h. Nectarinia flavostriata (I) Wall., P. Z. S. 1865, 478, pi. XXIX, fig. 2; (2) Briigg., Abli. 
Yer. Bremen V, 1876, 73; (3) Rosenb. , Malay. Arcliip. 1878, 272. 
c. Aethopyga sp. (1) Salvad., Ibis 1865, 549. 
