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.)