VICTORIA 129 



Strait, and Kangaroo Island and Tasmania we have 

 races. 



Further away we know that different races occur 

 on the New Hebrides, Fiji and New Caledonia. 



The Commonwealth has over a dozen species of 

 the White-eye living like the White-face on the 

 co-operative system. In the more settled districts 

 during the fruit season they give rise to much 

 criticism. Grapes and figs fare badly. Its food 

 during most of the year is the destructive blight 

 insect. So it remains for fertile brains to discover 

 ways of frightening away the birds as the fruit 

 ripens. 



The White-eye is one of the few Australian birds 

 which lay eggs of a bluish colour in a delicately 

 built nest, a few feet above the ground. 



WHITE-EYES (Zosterops) 

 (Plate 2, Fig. 54) 



A. The Golden White-eye and its races. 



B. The Grey White-eyes. 



White eyes are closely related to the family of 

 Honey-eaters (Meliphagidse). We are guided in 

 saying so by the brush like tongues in each. One 

 family mostly lays pinkish eggs, the other bluish. 



The northern half of Australia gives a colour 

 eflPect to its birds, a good example being shown in 

 map 55 A, the Golden White-eye (Z. gulliveri). 

 If the tropics were not where they are, all the 

 twelve species of White-eyes would be grey. As 



