570 PASSERIFORMES : DICAEIDAE chap. ' 



with their larvae and spiders ; while the birds hop actively about, 

 and cling to the branches and trunks of trees, like Tits or Creepers, 

 or even to bushes and grass. They rarely hover before flowers 

 as Humming-birds do, though frequently sucking honey. "When 

 feeding or singing the wings are often opened and shut alternately. 

 The quick, direct flight is accompanied by rapid pulsations of 

 the pinions, and the males chase their rivals angrily. The shrill, 

 but pleasing and varied notes recall those of the Willow -Warbler. 

 The pear-shaped or oval nests, woven or attached hj cobwebs to 

 the ends of boughs, to the under surfaces of leaves, or more rarely 

 to reed-stems, are composed of grass, moss, roots, and the like, 

 lined with hair, feathers, and down, and usually have a projecting 

 porch. Beneath are attached as decorations leaves, twigs, lichens, 

 shreds of bark, paper, and cloth, wood -borings, or caterpillars' excreta. 

 Arachnothera magna, at least occasionally, builds an open nest. 

 The two or three eggs are commonly greenish- or brownish-grey, 

 with purplish, reddish-brown, yellowish, or dusky dots and spots ; 

 some, however, are whiter, with blackish markings, dark zones, or 

 hair-streaks ; while those of Arachnothera magna are brownish, 

 very thickly speckled with purplish - black. Fromeroj)s cafer 

 makes a cup of grass, fibres, and softer materials in forks of 

 ]jushes, and lays creamy eggs like those of Buntings, with wavy 

 lines or irregular blotches of dark brown or purplish. 



Fam. XXIX. Dicaeidae. — The " Flower-peckers " inhabit the 

 Indian and Australian Eegions as far eastwards as the Low 

 Archipelago, a few possibly kindred species occupying West Africa. 

 The bill is usually short, broad, and depressed, but is especially 

 slender in Pholidornis, stout and Finch-like in Prionochilus ; while 

 both mandibles shew minute terminal serrations. Feathers cover 

 the nostrils in Pardalotus, and in life Lohornis has three small 

 white rictal outgrowths. The tongue is separated into four semi- 

 tubular fringeless projections. The metatarsus is never long ; the 

 wings are fairly so ; the tail is generally short and even, but is 

 rounded in Prionochilus vincens, longer in most Papuasian forms, 

 and sometimes graduated, as in Pristorhamphus. Many species 

 exhibit vivid combinations of blue or purple with black, relieved 

 by a scarlet or an orange head, rump, or chest-patch, the lower 

 surface being yellow, greyish, or greenish -white ; some, however, 

 replace the blue shades by green, brown, or olive ; others are quite 

 plain ; and Melanocharis unicolor is perfectly black. The Diamond- 



