MELIPHAGID.E. 109 



FAMILY lY. 



Meliphagid/E.* The Honey-eaters. 



Gen. Chakac. — Bill more or less long, curved, and usually acute at the tip, 

 which is slightly emarginated ; the nostrils placed in a large groove, and 

 generally covered by a membranous scale ; wings moderate, the first three 

 quills graduated ; the tail long and broad ; the tarsi rather short and strong, 

 and the toes more or less long, the outer always united at its base ; the 

 tongue is extensile, and furnished at the tip with a pencil of short slender 

 fibres. 



' The beautiful birds composing tlie family of tlie 

 Honey-eaters^ altliougli nearly unknown to Linnaeus, 

 occupy a prominent and important situation in the 

 ornithological department of nature. Chiefly con- 

 fined to Australia, where they abound in every variety 

 of form, and in an apparently inexhaustible multitude 

 of species, they find a sufficient and never-failing 

 support in the peculiar vegetation of that country. 

 There the fields are never without blossom, and 

 different species of plants, particularly the EuccdyiDti, 

 afford a constant succession of that food which is 

 suitable to the tubular and brush-like tongue of these 

 birds. It must not be supposed, however, that the 

 food of the Meliphagidse is restricted, as their name 

 would imply, simply to the nectar of flowers. They, 

 indeed, feed upon the honey, but combined with 

 the numerous small insects lodged in most flowers, 

 which they extract with their tongues, formed 

 for that purpose. 



This family embraces three subdivisions, named 

 respectively the Honey-creepers, the Honey-eaters, 

 and the Honey-feeders. 



* jidXi, meli, honey ; (pdyoj, phago, to eat ; Honey-eater. 



