584 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



India ; nor are tliey wanting in Africa. Tliat the NectarinidcB 

 and MeliphaffidcB are closely allied must be evident to every 

 one who attends to ornithology as a science. 



Sp. 859. NECTARINIA AUSTRALIS, Gould. 



Australian Sun-bird. 



Nedarinia frenata, Miill. Verh. Nat. Gesch., p. 61. t. 8. f. 1? 



australis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, pai-t xviii. p. 201. 



TerridiTri, Aborigines of Cape York. 



Nectarinia australis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, Supplement, 

 pi. 



The Nectarinia australis offers a very close alliance to the 

 N.fratiata of the Celebes; it will be found, however, to 

 differ from that species in its larger size, in the mark above 

 the eye being less conspicuous, and in the straighter form 

 of the bill. For my first knowledge of this bird I am in- 

 debted to the researches of the late Commander Ince, E.N., 

 who, while attached to H.M.S. Fly, paid considerable atten- 

 tion to the natural history of the northern parts of Australia. 

 Since then many other specimens have been forwarded to me 

 by Mr. Macgillivray and others. 



Mr. Macgillivray informed me that "this pretty Sun-bird 

 appears to be distributed along the whole of the north-east 

 coast of Australia, the adjacent islands, and the whole of the 

 islands in Torres Straits. Although thus generally distributed, 

 it is nowhere numerous, seldom more than a pair being seen 

 together. Its habits resemble those of the Ptilotes, with 

 which it often associates, but still more closely to those of 

 Myzomela obscura ; like those birds, it resorts to the flowering 

 trees to feed upon the insects which frequent the blossoms, 

 especially those of a species of Sciadopliylhm : this singular 

 tree is furnished with enormous spike-like racemes of small 

 scarlet flowers, which attract numbers of insects, and thus 

 fiu'nish an abundant supply of food to the present bird and 



