538 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



Wc may here be allowed to quote Mr. Sharpe's words with regard to a group of 

 iiine-primaried birds which we are now going to mention briefly, viz: the DicJiiD.fi, 

 which, according to him and most other authors, cannot be separated far from the 

 Xectariniidx. lie introduces them in the following words: "The members of this 

 family — if we are allowed thus to designate a group of birds which cannot be defined in 

 exact terms — are principally Indian and Au.stralian, a few representatives being found 

 on the west coast of Africa. Although resembling the .sun-birds in habits, very few 



Fig, 2tW. — Tirhoflrnmri miirarifj. Alpine wiill-creeper, 



have the slender, creeper-like bill of the latter family ; and they differ also in their 

 nesting habits, their nest being a beautiful ])urse-likc structure of felted materials." 



Several of the forms herein included are peculiar to the Sandwich Islands, and 

 with the rest of that most interesting fauna of surviving foi-ms will soon become 

 extinct. On those isolated islands they have evolved several curiously specialized 

 generic forms, with bills ranging from that of the curiously curved beak of Ilemi- 

 ynathus, which has the upper mandible nearly twice as long as the lower one, to the 



