232 
meliphagidjE. 
Genus NECTARINIA, Illiger. 
CINNYRIS FRENATA, Mull. 
(Nectarinia australis, Gould.) 
Australian Sun-bird. 
Gould, JTandbk. Bds. Ausl., Vol. i., sp. 359, p. 584. 
“ According to Mr. Rainbird, numbers of this beautiful little 
Sun-bird may be seen on bright mornings, among the leafy tops 
of the mangrove-belts near Port Denison. They are ever 
darting out to capture some insect on the wing, returning and 
disappearing again in the thick foliage, or perching upon some 
topmost twig to devour their captures, and show their shining 
purple breasts glittering in the sun. During the hottest part of 
the day the Sun-birds betake themselves to the thick scrub, which 
in many places runs down to the water’s edge. They breed in the 
months of November and December. One pair chose a little break 
in the scrub within a few yards of the water, where facing the 
rising sun, they constructed their nest (which I now have) 
suspending it by the top from the dead twig of a small shrub, at 
the foot of a large “ Bottle tree ” (Sterculia rupeslris). The nest 
is of an oval form, much resembling and suspended in the same 
way as that of Acanthiza liucata, with a small hood over the 
opening, which is near the top. It is composed of fibrous roots 
and shreds of cotton-tree (Gomphocarpus fruticosus) bark, firmly 
interwoven with the webs and cocoons of various spiders, and a 
few pieces of white sea-wced ornamenting the outside. It is lined 
with feathers and the silky native cotton, and is about five inches 
long by three inches and a-half in diameter.” (Ramsay, Ibis, 
1865, Yol. i., New Series, p. 85.) 
Eggs two in number for a sitting, oval in form somewhat pointed 
at the smaller end, of a greenish-grey ground colour, which is 
almost obscured by freckles and dashes of light brown. Two 
specimens in the Australian Museum Collection measure as follows: 
length (A) 0-66 x 0-42 inch ; (B) 0'67 x 0-44 inch. 
