26 president's address. 



then, that tlie birds and flowers whicli are dependent on each otlier 

 form a large percentage of the avifauna and the tiora. 



We hardly expect to find references to bird-pollination in 

 Gould's "Birds of Australia." But we do iind numerous allusions 

 to the nectar-feeding habits of the honey-eaters; and he also re- 

 peatedly states that they eat pollen, giving instances of pollen 

 being found in their stomachs. 



The earliest reference, which I can tind, to the pollination of 

 Australian Howers by birds, is in an article on Eucalyptus by Dr. 

 WooUs(l). Speaking of hybridisation in E. tereticornis, he 

 says, "With regard to hybridisation in this genus, the flowers of 

 which are probably fertilised before the operculum is cast off, Dr. 

 Mueller does not think that it is impossible, but that all ordinary 

 chances are against it. 'Still,' he continues, 'as Mr. W. S. Macleay 

 remarked, parrots and other birds occasionally bite off the flower- 

 buds, and may accidentally uncover a stigma, and remove the 

 anthers; and, again, insects may then flnish oft' their work, and 

 carry pollen across from another species." 



A correspondent, Mr. S. T. Turner, in a letter, mentions that, 

 at the time of writing, parrots were very busy biting off' the oper- 

 cula of Eucalypt-buds. 



I do not thilik that there is any foundation for the opinion that 

 Eucalypt-flowers are fertilised in the bud. They are conspicuous 

 flowers when open, scented, and contain a large amount of nectar, 

 all of whicli would point to pollination by insects or birds. 



I ha\e not been al)le to trace any further allusion to bird-polli- 

 nation in Australia until 1895, when a couple of short notes by 

 myself were read at a Meeting of the Australasian Association for 

 the Advancement of Science(20). These recorded the visits of 

 Acanthorhynchus, and a species of Ptilotis to Erythrina indica, 

 and of Acantliorhynchus to Telopea. In neither was the jDrocess 

 described, but it was in a later paper(21). In Erythrina, the 

 flowers are curved towards the left, and the bird sits on the riglit- 

 hand-side, and inserts its beak into the other side. The pressure 

 forces the stamens and style out, so that they brush on the side of 

 the bird's neck, leaving a deposit of pollen. Sliould tlie bird then 



