62 
Mr. G. L. Bates— Field-Notes on the 
correctly The Ibis/ 1908, p. 338). The food is nearly always 
found to be spiders. Sometimes in the stomachs I have found 
what looked like little particles—stamens, &c.—of flowers. 
An individual of this species was found caught in the web 
of a big black-and-yeilow spider, a sort of retribution for the 
many little spiders it had killed and eaten. 
Nests and eggs have now been certainly identified by 
having the bird caught on the nest, as Bulu boys well know 
how to do. These nests are hung from a twig and composed 
of fine fibres, some of which pass over the twig, mixed with 
dry leaves or grass in varying proportions, with little or no 
down inside, differing thus from the nests of some Sun birds. 
The eggs are two in a clutch. They measure 17-18 mm. x 
13 mm. In my notebook I speak of some of them as of a 
dull (grey ?) colour, with blackish spots and irregular marks 
scattered sparingly over them. But the two eggs from one 
of the nests—just as certainly identified as the others— 
differed greatly from them in wanting the blackish spots 
and markings. (I seem, unfortunately, to have left behind 
the eggs of this species, and could not shew them to 
Mr. Grant.) 
1848. Chalcomitra cyanol^ma. [Zesol.] 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 339. 
This is rather a common Sunbird, both about Efulen and 
in the Ja district. It is seen around flowering shrubs and 
vines. The food.found in the stomach was sometimes spiders, 
sometimes hard seeds resembling grape-seeds, sometimes 
what appeared to be bits of flowers, as if the flowers them¬ 
selves had been picked to pieces and swallowed. In the 
stomachs of these and other Sunbirds is often found a 
liquid, which may consist of the nectar of flowers mixed with 
the stomach juices. I did not feel like tasting it to find 
out. 
1857. Chalcomitra angolensis. [Zesol.] 
Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 338. 
This Sunbird is rather common, and is seen most often 
about the flowering twigs of some tree standing in an open 
