SHORT CUTS BY BIRDS TO NECTARIES. 407 
quickly replaced when drained. I have occasionally seen ants drowned in 
the honey of G. Banksii—once as many as eight in a single brimful flower ; 
and this would doubtless be an additional attraction to such birds as like 
them. 
I think I can safely say that hive-bees, which attend even these flowers 
(and especially those of Grevillea robusta) sometimes in considerable numbers, 
and appear to assist in their pollination, probably do not help to attract the 
birds, Not only have I witnessed no attack on them there, apart from a 
rejection by Cinnyris chalybeus, but I have in the course of my various 
experiments offered hive-bees to several species of birds. These, with only 
two ог three exceptions, have rejected them with more or less marked dislike 
under circumstances that precluded the supposition that the sting might be 
the cause of rejection. The experiments showed, in fact, that hive-bees—and 
various other Aculeates—are definitely “ distasteful” to many species of 
birds, their stings being often probably quite a secondary defence against a 
large proportion of these animals. 
К. THE DETERRENT, 
What causes the bird to avoid the natural opening? In the case of 
Gardenia tigrina a glance at the diagram (РІ. 82. fig. 1) is sufficient to 
show that there the difficulties offered by the natural opening, even to a bird 
of the size of Cinnyris chalybwus, are probably an ample deterrent ; and my 
earlier observations generally led me to the conclusion that the bird simply 
took the easiest way to the nectar. If the natural opening were somewhat 
more difficult than piercing or than utilizing a previous puncture, it would 
be avoided ; if easier, 16 would be taken. Roughly speaking, this is perfectly 
true of the less destructive birds. Those birds, however, that enter every, or 
nearly every, flower wrongly must have some further reason for their action, 
for, as already described, I have sometimes seen them go to real trouble, 
apparently, to avoid the mouth of the flower. There must be something 
there that is objected to. What is it ? 
I quote the following from one of my Erythrina notes :—I was watching 
a flock of widow-birds ( Coliopasser ardens, Bodd.) at work on the flowers of 
Erythrina tomentosa, “ А bird that had entered a flower in a normal manner 
hastily withdrew its head and shook it vigorously and repeatedly. Something 
inside the flower—possibly a nauseous or a stinging insect, or, far more 
likely, merely honey or pollen in the nostril—seemed to have annoyed it 
very greatly, but it soon went on to other racemes.” 
This suggests that pollen or over-abundant honey—or the stamens and 
pistil themselves—getting into the nostrils or eyes might deter birds from 
using the natural opening. On the other hand, I have watched large 
numbers of birds entering flowers by their natural openings, and the occasion 
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