406 MR. С. Е. M. SWYNNERTON ON 
J. THE ATTRACTION, 
Are the birds for the most part attracted directly by the nectar itself, or, 
indirectly, by the insects attracted by the latter? | 
Mr. Scott Elliot records (Ann. Bot. iv. 265-278) that he saw а рат 
of Cinnyris chalybeus carefully searching the heads of Leucospermum 
conocarpum, R. Br., for insects as much as for the honey ; but so far as my 
own observations are concerned, I should say that the honey was in nearly 
every case the main and sufficient attraction, though insects were taken 
incidentally too. In Erythrina Humeana I have in several cases carefully 
examined such flowers as I could reach, in each case bending the twig down 
cautiously into my net to prevent escapes, and Т have been surprised at the 
relatively small proportion of even much-sprung flowers that contained 
a single insect of any kind. Some, too, of the very few small insects 
I did find were almost certainly of highly unpleasant species. The time of 
year was unfavourable to them, but the main fact seemed clear—that 
it could hardly have been for insects that the birds were visiting the flowers 
so assiduously and in such numbers. In fact, Colius striatus var. minor, 
Cab., а most assiduous and abundant attendant of E. Humeana, has been 
shown both by general observation and, for this particular locality, һу 
my examination of from sixty to seventy of its stomachs, probably not to be 
an insect-eater at all. То elucidate the same point in Grevillea I once spent 
half an hour in the branches of one of my G.-robusta trees. Some of the 
birds fed within five feet of me, on the honey, and Т came to the conclusion 
finally that, though they were glad enough to take available insects of 
acceptable species (I witnessed four or five attacks, as against a large 
number of definite refusals), the nectar was what actually brought them to 
the flowers. Very few flowers indeed had insects, yet a bird arriving at a 
raceme would dip into practically every flower, taking them rapidly and 
systematically one after the other, the tip of its bill glistening the while 
with the honey. I saw only bulbuls and sunbirds on this occasion ; but 
these later remarks apply equally to the orioles and weavers that I have 
watched at these flowers at other times through my glasses. When placing 
racemes of Erythrina tomentosa or Grevillea robusta in my bulbul’s cage, 
[ have first examined them to make sure that no insects were included. In 
spite of their absence the bird has always tackled the flowers with eagerness, 
and, going through them systematically after the manner of a wild bird, has 
quickly emptied them of such honey (often literally overflowing) as they 
contained. In these and other ornithophilous species the honey has 
been exceedingly abundant, even in such a year of drought as 1912. A 
shake toa branch sometimes brings a shower of drops tumbling out of thie 
flowers, and in Grevillea robusta the leaves and twigs are often sticky with 
the honey that has overflowed from the flowers above them. It seems to ba 
