656. ÆTHOPYGA BELLA Tweeddale.
TWEEDDALE’S SUNBIRD.
- Æthopyga bella Tweeddale, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (1877), 20, 537: Shelley, Monogr. Nectarin. (1879), pts. 9 & 10, 77, pl. 25; Gadow, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1884), 9, 29; Grant, Ibis (1897), 236; Grant and Whitehead, Ibis (1898), 242 (eggs); Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 229 (nest); McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 98.
Mindanao (Everett, Celestino); Samar (Steere Exp., Whitehead).
“Male.—Chin, throat, breast, and uropygium bright sulphur-yellow; forehead, vertex, minor carpal coverts, upper tail-coverts, and upper surface of rectrices dark metallic green; occiput, nape, and wing-coverts dark olive; cheeks, lores, behind the eye, sides of head and neck, interscapulars, and back deep blood-red; quills almost black, margined with dark olive; abdomen, flanks, vent, under tail-coverts, and under wing-coverts silky white, more or less tinged with pale yellow, especially on the mesial line, under tail-coverts, and carpal edge; a few blood-red feathers on the upper breast; a metallic violet spot on side of head; a narrow line of deep blood-red runs along the rami of the mandible; a bold metallic moustache springs from the base of the mandible, and descends the sides of the neck; the upper half violet, the lower half green. Wing, 42.6; tail, 36.5; culmen, 13; tarsus, 13.
“Female.—Above, wing-coverts, and edgings to quills olive-green; uropygium bright sulphur-yellow as in the male; space before the eye, cheeks, ear-coverts, chin, throat, and upper breast gray, tinged with yellowish olive-green; lower breast, abdomen, flanks, and under tail-coverts white tinged with yellow; under wing-coverts white faintly tinged with yellow; quills and rectrices dark brown margined with olive; lateral rectrices tipped with albescent olive. Wing, 41; tail, 28; culmen, 13; tarsus, 13.” (Tweeddale.)
Three fresh eggs of this sunbird collected by Whitehead near Paranas, Samar, July 19, 1895, are thus described: “Shape ovate. Ground-color pale pinkish white, a heavily, marked irregular zone of dull red toward the larger end, and some scattered spots and blotches of the same color over the rest of the shell, with here and there underlying brown markings. Measurements 14 mm. by 10 mm.
“The nest built by this sunbird differs considerably from that made by Æ. magnifica, being a long bag-shaped pocket, with a loose dangling tail of dead leaves. The entrance is at the side and roofed over, in fact very much like that constructed by the different species of Cinnyris. This nest was found dangling to a bramble in an old native clearing some distance from the forest. The female was obtained after much difficulty.” (Grant and Whitehead.)