CINNYEIS ZETLONICUS. 
571 
head and hack glistening in the powerful sunlight, and exciting, perhaps, the warm admiration of some “ new 
arrival ” from England, who, rising from the morning tea-table, seeks the luxury of a pipe in the welcome 
long chair of eastern climes. But it frequents a variety of situations ; it may he found in the tallest primeval 
forest or on the borders of isolated woods hung with creepers, in the flowers of which it finds the same sustenanee 
as in the bungalow compound. Besides feeding on nectar it is very partial to small insects of all sorts and, 
out of the breeding-season, flocks of young birds, and perhaps females, may be seen searching among the 
branches of forest-trees for food, unaccompanied by a single metallic-plumaged bird. At such times I have 
more than once, when I had left behind my binoculars, dropped specimens with a charge of dust-shot from 
the upper boughs of some noble keeua-tree in the southern forests, or from an equally magnificent “ koombok 
overhanging the broad sandy bed of an eastern-province stream, and, expecting to pick up either of the much- 
sought-after Flowerpcckers '' of the island, been disappointed at finding that the little troop consisted of 
nothing but these Sun-birds. Had I taken the trouble to carry home some of these examples, my collection 
would have doubtless been enriched by the acquisition of birds in immature plumage. The song of this species 
is a lively pretty little chirping, which it constantly utters with a raising and shutting of its wings. 
The males are most pugnacious ; and, hearing on this point, Layard has an interesting note on the habits of 
this and the other Sun-birds of Ceylon; he writes (/oc. ci<.), after speaking of their visits to his verandah, “they 
would then betake themselves to the trellis supporting the passion-flowers, or to the branches of a pomegranate 
close by, where they pruned themselves and uttered a pleasing song. If two happened to come to the same 
flower, and from their numbers this often occurred, a battle always ensued, which ended in the vanquished bird 
retreating from the spot with shrill piping cries, while the conqueror would take up his position upon a flower 
or stem, and swinging his little body to and fro, till his coat of burnished steel gleamed and glistened in the 
sun, pour out his note of triumph. All this time the wings were expanded and closed alternately, every jerk 
of the body in Nectarinia asiatica and N. lotenia disclosing the brilliant yellow plumelets on either side of the 
breast.^^ 
Nidification . — The breeding-season lasts from November until July, during which time probably two 
broods are raised. I have taken the eggs in the north in November and in the south in December. The nest 
is a beautiful little structure, purse-shaped, and about 5 inches in length by 3 in breadth, and is attached to 
a pendent twig of a thorny shrub, generally about 4 or 5 feet from the ground. The exterior is composed of 
various materials, nests differing much in external appearance. They are generally constructed of fine grass 
or moss, decorated with small pieces of twig, bark, or decaying wood, which are fastened on with cobwebs and 
interlaced with lichens, white mosses, and such like — one nest, found near the shore of a salt lake, being covered 
with small pieces of bleached weed collected from the dry mud on the shore. The opening into the interior, 
which is composed of fine cotton, and sometimes strengthened with very fine grass, is just above the centre 
and shaded with a tiny hood; the depth of the egg-chamber is about 2 inches, and the diameter 1^. The eggs 
are usually two, hut sometimes three in number; large for the bird, rather stumpy ovals in shape, and of a 
dingy whitish or pale greenish or greenish-white ground, freckled with fine spots of greenish or olive-brown, 
which are often confluent round the obtuse end, and underlaid with small blotches of a lighter hue. The 
average dimensions are about 0'63 inch in length by 0'48 inch in breadth. 
From ‘ Nests and Eggs^ we glean that in India the breeding-season lasts from February until August, and 
that two broods are reared. The nest is constructed of the same materials as in Ceylon — vegetable fibres, 
cobwebs, chips of bark, dry petals of flowers, moss, cocoons, &c., and the interior felted with cotton-down. 
It is built sometimes as high as 30 feet from the ground. 
The average size of the eggs is stated to he 0-65 inch by 0-47. 
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