PASSEEES. 
Earn. CINNYEID^*. 
Bill slender, lengthened, compressed and curved throughout, very acute at the tip, which is 
entire. Nostrils linear, placed in a capacious membrane. Gape smooth. Wings more or less 
pointed, with the 1st quill exceeding the primary-coverts. Tail of 12 feathers, usually rather 
short, the central feathers in some genera elongated. Legs and feet stout. The tarsus strongly 
scaled ; hind toe and claw large. 
Of small size ; mostly of brilliant metallic plumage. Tongue lengthened and bifid. 
Subfam. NECTAEINIINiE. 
Bill typically curved and slender. Wings with the 1st quill slightly longer than the primary- 
coverts. Tail even, or with the central feathers attenuated and much longer than the next pair. 
Genus CINNYEIS. 
Bill variable in length and curvature, much compressed, the margins of both mandibles 
inflected towards the tip. Nostrils overlapped by the membrane. Wings with the 3rd and 4th 
quills the longest, the 2nd either equal to or shorter than the 7th, and the 1st not half the length 
of the 2nd. Tail short and even. Tarsus longer than the middle toe and claw ; the outer toe 
not much shorter than the middle, and joined to it at the base ; hind toe equal to the middle, 
its claw large. 
CINNYKIS LOTENIFS, 
(LOTEN’S SUN-BIRD.) 
Certliia lotenia, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 188 (1766). 
Cinnyris lotenius (L.), Cuv. Eegne An. i. p. 412 (1817) ; Bonap. Consj). Gen. Av. i. p. 408 
(1850) ; Shelley, Monog. Cinnyr. pt. v. (1877); Fairbank, Str, Feath. 1877, p. 399. 
Nectarinia lotenia (L.), Jard. Monogr. Sun-birds, pp. 220, 263, j)l. 23 (1842); Blyth, Cat. B. 
Mus. A. S. B. p. 224 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. j). 175 ; Gould, 
B. of Asia, pt. viii. p. 3, pi. 3 (1856). 
Nectarinia letonia (apud Layard) {e'lrore), Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 119 (1852). 
Arachnechthra lotenia (L.), Florsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 743 (1856-58) ; Jerd. 
B. of Ind. i. p. 372 (1862) ; Walden, Ibis, 1870, p. 23 ; Holdsw. P.Z. S. 1872, p. 434 ; 
Swinhoe, Ibis, 1873, p. 229. 
* I follow Captain Shelley in using the oldest family title for this group, although it has been usually styled Necta- 
riuiidse, after the genus Nectarinia, the first established, I believe, for any of the Sun-birds. 
4 C 2 
