ladioli. His head gets well dusted with
yellow pollen, which he carries like a bee from one bloom to another.
In the case of flowers with very deep calyces, he sometimes makes
short cut to the honey by piercing with his sharp curved bill a hole
in the side through which to insert the tongue. The cock purple sunbird
needs no description. His glistening metallic plumage compels
attention. He is usually accompanied by his spouse, who is earthy
brown above and pale yellow below.

The other sunbird commonly seen in hill-gardens is one appropriately
named the tiny sun bird or honeysucker (_Arachnecthra minima_), being
less than two-thirds the size of a sparrow. As is usual with sunbirds,
the cock is attired more gaily than the hen. He is a veritable
feathered exquisite. Dame Nature has lavished on his diminutive body
most of the hues to be found in her well-stocked paint-box. His
forehead and crown are metallic green. His back is red, crimson on
the shoulders. His lower plumage might be a model for the colouring
of a Neapolitan ice-cream; from the chin downwards it displays the
following order of colours: lilac, crimson, black, yellow. The hen
is brown above, with a dull red rump, and yellow below.

The purple-rumped sunbird (_Arachnecthra zeylonica_), which is very
abundant in and about Madras, does not ascend the Nilgiris above 3000
feet. Loten's sunbird (_A. lotenia_) ventures some 2500 feet higher,
and has been seen in the vicinity of Coonoor. This species is in
colouring almost indistinguishable from the purple sunbird, but its
long beak renders it unmistakable.

THE DICAEIDAE OR FLOWER-PECKER FAMILY

Flower-peckers, like sunbirds, are feathered exquisites. The habits
of the two families are very similar, save that flower-peckers dwell
among the foliage of trees, while sunbirds, after the manner of
butterflies, sip the nectar from flowers that grow near the ground.

Every hill-garden can boast of one or two flower-peckers. These are
among the smallest birds in existence. They are as restless as they
are diminutive. So restless are they that it is very difficult to
follow their movements through field-glasses, and they are so tiny
that without the aid of field-glasses it is difficult to see them
among the foliage in which they live, move, and have their being.
These elusive mites continually utter a sharp _chick-chick-chick_.
Two species are common on the Nilgiris.

They are known as the Nilgiri flower-pecker (_D