S. Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



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The Spicifers in the London Zoo always seem very poor specimens

and give no idea of what the bird is like in its wild state.


The garden in Johore with its hibiscus, coconut-palms, and other

tropical flowering trees, was a great attraction to the Sun-birds and

Flower-peckers. Of the Sunbirds there were four varieties.


Scientists have often given birds silly and inappropriate names,

but no birds are better named than the Sunbirds. On the sun-drenched

mountain sides of Africa, sucking the sweet-tasting Leonotis flowers,

beneath the dazzling sun in India, above the deep forest in Malaya, or

flitting around the coconut palms in the full glory of the tropical day

in the South Seas, he is always the same, a bird of the sun. True there

are a few exceptions, there always are, for one or two species never

leave the confines of the gloomy forests in Central Africa. But seek

out a gaudy blossom in the tropics of the “ Old World ” and you will be

sure to find him there, a glittering gem of ethereal beauty, sustaining

himself on the nectar of those exotic blooms. I often felt qualms of

conscience in that far away garden of hibiscus and orchids when I set

my traps for those elves of the sunlight. What right had I to take

away from those realms of sunshine to gloomy northern lands those

scintillating little fairies of the palm blossoms ?


The Common Sunbird in the garden in Johore was the Brown-

throated or Malaccan (Anthreptes malaccensis), a brilliant bronzy

greenish purple above with a brown throat edged with purple and

bright yellow under parts. This species was always around the bungalow

and one was always sure to see it either around the hibiscus flowers or

on the flowering sprays of the coconut palms, these latter were a great

attraction to all the honey-sucking birds. As the hibiscus flowers were

so large, the birds could not feed from the front of them as there was

nowhere to perch, so they would settle behind the flowers and force the

beak through the base of the petals. Often one saw the males dis¬

playing to their sombre-coloured mates, flitting about the trees with

their brilliant yellow pectoral plumes expanded. These resembled small

fans on each side of the breast. The Malaccan is the commonest of the

Malayan Sunbirds and is found about the gardens of houses in and

around the towns. Sometimes it comes into the verandahs of the houses

to search for spiders, of which all Sunbirds seem very fond.



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