Volume 36, Plate XI / Ornithology (Birds)

Senegal Sun-Bird

Nectarinia Senegalensis

A species with a coronal and gular patch of rich emerald-green, the throat extending into a moustache, the back, wings, tail and belly a deep velvety brownish black glossed with purple, and the neck and breast brilliant scarlet, which shifts to violet-blue because each feather is banded violet-purple beneath scarlet tips that may be erected during courtship. This splendid dress ceases after incubation, the male then resembling the wood-brown female; it ranges over Caffraria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.