278 Scott-Elliot . — Ornithophilous Flowers 
seen collecting, pollen on this flower, and they may produce 
fertilisation, but the whole structure of the flower is ornitho- 
philous. 
A. prcealta, Red., is exactly similar to this species. 
Babiana ringens, Ker. 
I am strongly inclined to place this amongst ornithophilous 
flowers, though I cannot certainly say I have seen the birds at 
work. The bright scarlet colour, the length (sixteen lines) 
from style to ovary, and the general appearance of the flower, 
are all in favour of its being ornithophilous, but I could never 
see the birds actually on the flowers. 
NOTE ON HABITS OF CINNYRIDAE. 
A point not, I think, usually known about the sunbirds is 
that they are excessively good fertilisers. They do not as a rule 
mix their honeys, but keep to one flower at a time in the same 
way as a bee. It is also easy to see how their habits arose. 
They are all in part insect-eaters. I kept Nectarinia souimanga 
in a cage for nearly six weeks, and found it was very expert 
in catching flies (unfortunately it died in the Red Sea on the 
way home), and there are all the degrees from several insect- 
eating birds, which only occasionally take a sip at honey, to 
the typical Nectariniae. Zoster ops virens would in such a 
series be the connecting link in habit. 
The most important species at Cape Town are Nectarinia 
chalybea and bicollar is, and Promerops caper. I found that 
Pr outer ops Gurney i replaces P. caper in the Eastern Districts 
of the Cape Colony and in Natal. Nectarinia famosa spends 
the season from December to April in the Karoo, while from 
December to April it appears to go to the Knysna and East 
London. 
I am led to entirely disagree with Mr. Wallace’s 1 opinion 
that the colour of flower-seeking birds is quite unconnected 
1 Wallace, ‘ Darwinism,’ pp. 335, 336. 
