8o 



" smothered with syrup ; and surely the fact that the tongue has this brush 

 "at the end of it indicates plainly enough the use of it. I have seen the 

 " birds feeding often, and I am of the opinion that they do eat little minute 

 "insects, and also pollen, but that the honey or syrup in the blossoms is 

 " their favourite food. Of course, this is not always available. During the 

 "depth of winter there are very few flowers about, and then the birds no 

 " doubt live very much like the tramps, upon what they can get. But I am 

 "certain that their name is a proper one and that they eat honey and 

 "plenty of it. 



" The honey-eaters can hardly be called musical birds, but there are 

 "two or three members of the family which have very pretty and sweet 

 " notes. One of these, a common one too, is known as the Singing Honey- 

 " eater. Mr. A. J. Campbell says of this bird that he has never heard it 

 "sing anything worth mentioning. Well, it certainly hasn't got the lovely 

 "deep, liquid note of the harmonious shrike-thrush, for instance, but it 

 "has a really sweet, singing warble, that I have listened to with delight 

 " hundreds of times. A pair always nests near where I am writing, and 

 "their melody is the first announcement that spring is come. For such a 

 "small bird their notes are really loud, and to my mind there is not the 

 "slightest doubt of their being musical. So I herein' accuse Mr. Campbell 

 "of libel. Most of the honey-eaters indeed have something to savin the 

 " musical way, but none that I know has notes anything so pretty as those 

 " of the Singing Honey-eater. 



" Very rarely does anyone molest the honey-eaters. Fortunately for 

 " themselves, the birds are shy and retiring as a rule ; and also as a rule they 

 "are not so conspicuously plumaged. I have often had quite a search to 

 " place one in a tree. Then, one of their favourite resorts is away in the 

 " topmost branchletsof hugh towering gum trees. Yon will find the honey - 

 "eater in the tops of all the gums, away up, Soft, and 100ft. often, and 

 " almost out of sight. There are some varieties, indeed, which hardly ever 

 "come down to terra-firma, but practically live in the tree-tops. The best 

 " place to see the honey-eaters is where the trees are low, but, naturally, 

 "there are fewer birds in these localities than where the trees are high. 



" I have said that the usual plumage of the honey-eaters is not con- 

 spicuous; but there are some members of the family which are very 

 " showily dressed. One, with which I am not acquainted, and it is never 

 " seen in Western Victoria, is the blood honey-eater. This bird has a bright 

 " scarlet head and neck, and must, therefore be very conspicuous. Another, 

 " a Queensland variety, of which very little is known, is called the gay-tinted 

 "honey-eater — a name that is self-explanatory ; while still another also very 

 " rare, is the lovely painted honey-eater. These, however are the excep- 

 tions ; and all or nearly all, the commoner varieties may well be termed 

 " plainly-clad birds. 



" The remark that the honey-eaters are rarely molested does not apply 



