12 The iVliitc-chcekcd Honcysuchcr. 



The White-Cheehed Honey Sucher. 



Meliornis sericea. 



Bv Wesley T. Pace, IvZ.S., etc. 



Not many of the M cl'if'liagidac \va\q been known to 

 ]iri\ate avicuUure in this country, tliou.^ii a g'ood few species 

 have been exhibited at the London Zoo at various periods, and 

 where the subject of our plate may still be seen in the Small 

 Birds' House. 



In last volume in an article on " The Birds of Tasmania 

 some glimpses were s.;iven us of this beautiful and interesting 

 family in their native wilds 



Mr. Le Souef, in his book " The Birds of Australia," 

 writes thus of the Honey-eaters : 



" The Ilonc'^-caters are among the most characteristic birds of our 

 bush, and are to Ije met with in aU parts of the Continent. Their shapely 

 rather slender bodies are well adapted to the restless life which they lead 

 amongst the branches of the shrubs and trees. In the search for the 

 most attractive howcr clusters, the flight is often broken into little zig-zag's 

 and many a curve, and on alighting they creep and twine amongst the 

 branches, and adopt the quaintest and most ungraceful modes of suspen- 

 sion in order to enable them to probe the tubular or cup-shaped blossoms. 

 The protractile and brush-like tongue enables them to extract the honey 

 from the many Eucalypts, Tea-trees, Bottle-brushes, Banksias and Heaths, 

 and the poise of the birds during the operation is graceful and easy. 

 With the honey they take the pollen and sometimes the buds of the 

 flowers. A large j^roportion of the food of nearly all the species con- 

 sists of insects, which they pick out of ihe flowers, or off the twigs, more 

 rarely on the wing. ITence, though a few are fruit lovers, and in con- 

 sequence may be orchartl robbers, on the whole the family is of 

 considerable service to the agriculturists. The notes of most of flu- 

 Honey-eaters are pleasing .... The nests are ojien and cup sha|ietl. 

 variously composed of grasses, bark, old spitlers' webs, lined with liner 

 grasses, thin strips of bark, hair, and wool, and are placed at various 

 heights in forked branches of the trees and .saplings, sometimes .suspended 

 b\- the rim. while a few \nv\<\ in bushes. The eggs are two or ihrev in 

 numl)er and have a strong family likeness, with a uniform ground coloiu' 

 white, or more often llesh-coloured, creamy, or buff, ornamented with 

 sjiots and dots of chestnut-red, and purplish-grey. They vary in length 

 from a little over half an inch in the smaller birds to an inch and a 

 quarter in the largest." 



