THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 123 



NOTES ON THE BIRD FAUNA OF THE BOX HILL 



DISTRI CT — Continued. 



honey-eaters. 



By Robert Hall. 



(Bead before Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 9th August, 1897.) 



In the ornithology of this continent the honey-eating family is 

 found to be the largest in number of species. 



That eminent ornithologist, Mr. John Gould, was very happy in 

 claiming for the Meliphagidae the place in the avi-fauna of 

 Australia held by the eucalypts in the flora. Plant and animal 

 are closely associated, for where a quantity of flowering gums are 

 growing, so surely will be the honey-eaters represented by one or 

 more species. When there are not any blossoms on certain trees 

 the birds will seek others further afield, or, if necessary, will 

 subsist on insect life until such time as Nature provides the 

 nectar-pots for a dual purpose. 



The question of what constitutes the family of Meliphagida? is an 

 open one, rendered so by the varied opinions held by five leading 

 systematists of London. The bone of contention is whether the 

 Zosterops, of which there are 88 species known, should or should 

 not be included in the family. Dr. Gadow, in " The British 

 Museum Catologue of Birds," vol. ix., favours their entry. Of 

 honey-eaters with generally recognized definition there are some 

 150 known species confined to the Australian and New Zealand 

 regions, though with scanty representation in the latter. With one 

 exception, they are altogether placed in these areas, and it is not 

 so very surprising that this wanderer should get from Lombok 

 to the Island of Bali ; rather the wonder is that the north-west 

 boundary of geographical range should be so faithfully kept by the 

 birds. 



If you hold the view that the Silver-eyes (Zosteropinse) should 

 form a part of the family, then the two regions named will lose the 

 family as one peculiar to the areas, for it then starts its most 

 western line of habitation in South Africa, and works northward 

 to China, and south from there to New Zealand, closely traversing 

 the intermediate countries. 



The first Zosterops described was from a specimen obtained in 

 New South Wales, and the largest species now occupies the small 

 island of Norfolk. 



If we include the Silver-eyes, of which there are six species in 

 Australia, we find our continent with Tasmania to total seventy- 

 five species. Thirty-seven of these are recorded as Victorian, four- 

 teen of which, according to my observations, occur in the 

 district under review. 



The White-plumed Honey-eater, Plilotis penicillata, Gould 

 (W.), is rather less familiar than the yellow-faced species. It is 



