Æthopyga flagrans Oustalet, Jour. de l'Institut (1876), 108.
Cinnyris flagrans Shelley, Monogr. Nectarin. pt. 5 (1877),
147; pts. 11 & 12 (1880), pl. 47, fig. 2; Gadow, Cat. Birds
Brit. Mus. (1884), 9, 88; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 230 (habits);
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 99.
Cinnyris excellens Grant, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1895). 4, 18;
Ibis (1895), 255, 275.
Catanduanes (Whitehead); Luzon (Laglaise, Whitehead).
"Adult male.--Forehead and chin metallic violet; upper tail-coverts
metallic green; tail black, edged with metallic green and violet; the
mantle, back, and outer edges of the dark brown wings olive-yellow;
chin, sides of head, sides of neck, and fore neck black, this color
extending likewise over the sides of the upper breast; no pectoral
tufts; center of fore neck and chest bright orange-red, which color
passes gradually into the pale yellow of the rest of the under
parts. Culmen, 18; wing, 51; tail, 33; tarsus, 13." (Gadow.)
"Adult male.--The metallic patch of feathers on the forehead-is
steel-green, and does not extend so far back; the rest of the
crown and nape yellowish olive-green, shading into orange on the
back; and the sides of the belly and flanks are olive-gray, pale
yellowish in the middle, with a brilliant orange-red patch above. As
in C. guimarasensis, the present species has the chin and upper part
of the throat metallic purplish blue, and the chest and breast velvety
black, divided up the middle by a brilliant orange-red band. Length,
102; wing, 48; tail, 30; tarsus, 14.
"A bird which appears to be a nearly adult female, though the sex
was not ascertained, differs from the female of C. guimarasensis as
described by Bourns and Worcester, Minn. Acad. Nat. Sci. Occ. Papers
(1894), I, no. 1, 55, in the following points: The head and nape
are dull olive-green, shading into brighter olive-green (instead
of brownish) on the rest of the upper parts; the sides of the
face are dull olive (not dark ashy gray); the throat and chest
gray slightly washed with yellow, rather more marked on the chin,
and the rest of the under parts are pale yellowish olive, with no
trace of the orange-yellow on the breast as described in the female
of C. guimarasensis." (Grant.)
Specimens of the flaming sunbird collected by Whitehead were
inadvertently described by Grant as new under the name Cinnyris
excellens. Grant's descriptions are included here to supplement that
by Gadow. I have not seen the species.