-570 
CINNYEIS ZEYLONICUS. 
that Jerdon aflSrms the throat of the youug male to be more yellow than that of the female, Captain Shelley states, 
in his excellent article on this species, that the specimen labelled “ Jiiy. d , Malabar,” from which he took his 
description, had “ one metallic-coloured feather on the throat, indicating that it would hare assumed the adult 
male plumage.” It is certainly a very interesting character in its plumage that the young male should only differ 
from the female in the colour of the throat being yellow. I myself obtained a specimen in August which had a 
metallic throat mingled with yellow feathers ; the plumage of the head and back was mixed with dove-grey 
feathers, but the amethyst rump was not. I take this bird to have been changing to the adult stage from immature 
plumage. Indian birds have the bill longer, and are slightly larger than Ceylonese, but do not differ from the 
latter in the character of their plumage. 
Males in Captain Shelley’s collection measure 2-15, 2-2, 2-23, 2-25 in the wing ; bill ‘from gape across to tip 0-72, 
0-75, 0'65, 0-68. In some the bills are more curved than in my specimens, in others slightly straighter. 
Distribution. — The “ Ceylonese Sun-bird ” is a very abundant species with us j it is found throughout the 
whole island, but is particularly numerous in the western, southern, and lower parts of the Kandyan Province. 
About Colombo it is one of the most familiar of Ceylon birds, but it likewise frequents the forests of the 
interior, and its numbers do not seem to diminish towards the north. I found it tolerably plentiful in the 
Jaffna peninsula; but Mr. Iloldsworth did not meet with it at Aripu, the country, perhaps, there being of too 
arid a nature for it; it occurs, however, in the south-east of the island, a district inhabited by other typical 
northern-province birds — Pijrrhulauda grisea, Munia malabarica, Merops swinhoii, and others ; and it is, no 
doubt, only locally absent from the neighbourhood of Aripu. It inhabits the Trincomalie and Batticoloa 
districts, and is found throughout the northern forest tract. At Uswewa, in the Puttalam forests, Mr. Parker 
says it is common ; and adjoining this section of country I have met with it in the Seven Korales. In the 
north-east monsoon season it ascends to the vicinity of the Nuwara-Elliya plateau, occurring not unfrequently 
in the Hakgala gardens. I did not see it at Nuwara Elliya ; but I have no doubt that it may occasionally 
be seen, as a cool-season visitant, in tlie gardens of the residents there. 
Concerning its distribution in India I cannot do better than subjoin here Mr. Hume’s note on the subject 
which he published (Str. Feath. 1877, p. 270) in reference to Capt. Shelley’s article {loc. cit.)-. — “It may generally 
be stated that this species is confined to Southern and Eastern India. It does not occur, as far as we know, 
in Sindh, Kutch, Kattiawar, Bajpootana, the Punjab, the North-west Provinces, Oudh, Behar, the Central 
Indian Agency, nor in the major portion of the Central Provinces, though in these latter it has been observed 
occasionally near Chanda, and is common in the Raipoor and Surabulpoor districts. It does not extend to 
any part of British Burmah. It is normally a bird of the heavier rainfall and better-wooded provinces, though 
it certainly occurs in the comparatively dry uplands of the Deccan. It never ascends any of the mountain- 
ranges, to the best of our belief, to any considerable elevation, but is essentially a bird of the plains country. 
Mbth this reservation its range may be said to include Travancore, Cochin, the whole Madras Presidency, 
Mysore, Hyderabad, the Bombay Presidency south of 20° N. lat., the southern portions of Behar, and the 
Central Provinces to about the same latitude, Raipoor, and the eastern states of these provinces, Orissa, the 
tributary Mehals, Chota Nagpur, and Lower Bengal, west of the Burrumpooter. I have never seen it from any 
of the districts east of this, i. e. Chittagong, Cachar, Tipperah, or Sylhet, though at Dacca, immediately west 
of this river, it is common. Nor have I seen it from Assam, though said to occur there, and though Godwin- 
Austen records a specimen from the Khasya hills.” 
Mr. Bourdillon does not appear to have noticed it in the Travancore hills, and the Rev. Dr. Fairbank only 
obtained it at the eastern base of the Palanis ; yet it is common at no inconsiderable elevations in Ceylon. 
Habits. — There is no more beautiful occupant of the bungalow-grounds, which make the environs of 
Colombo so pretty, than this lovely little creature. Attired in a plumage rivalling in splendour the gorgeous 
dress of the Humming-birds of South America and the West Indies, it may well be styled a “ Humming-bird ” 
by European residents in Ceylon. On almost every fine morning of the year it may be seen coming to the 
verandahs of the houses in the cinnamon-gardens, where it gathers nectar from the flowers which hang from the 
trellis-work, or snaps up the ill-starred spider as he diligently draws out his silken web in the rays of the 
morning sun ; in other grounds equally pleasant, but not provided with such a favoirrite resort as these 
luxuriant creepers, it may be observed darting about among the handsome -ffiSisews-shrubs, its metallic-plumaged 
