480 Mr. Swainson on New Australasian Birds. 



the Meliphagidce. This character is so important, and apparently 

 so connected with the natural economy of the Australasian necti- 

 ferous birds, that it is necessary to make a few observations upon 

 it in this place ; particularly as it goes more to decide the situa- 

 tion of Ptiloris than any other indication I can discover. The 

 Australasian Meliphagidce, with the exception of one type,* 

 derive their principal sustenance, as it is well known, from the 

 nectar of flowers : but the shortness of their wings renders it 

 impossible that their food can be thus extracted during flight, as 

 in the case of the Humming birds. They must therefore hop or 

 climb among the branches ; and, while feeding, must generally be 

 in a semi-perpendicular position.+ As a support to them in this 

 attitude, we accordingly find that the hind toe is remarkably 

 strong, and so much prolonged, as to give the foot an appearance 

 of being scansorial. Now as this character pervades the whole 

 of the Meliphagidce, and is very conspicuous in Ptiloris, I con- 

 sider it as a sufficient indication of the family in which we should 

 place this bird. 



An inquiry into the precise situation of Ptiloris among the 

 Meliphagidce, would extend the limits of this paper too much ; and 

 will be more suited for those general considerations on the Tenui- 

 rostres which I hope, ere long, to submit to Naturalists. I shall 

 therefore merely observe, that while this genus seems to open a 

 passage to the next family of Paradiseidce, it gives a typical repre- 

 sentation of that group among the Meliphagidce. 



* Entomyzon, (Mihi). The blue-faced Grakle of Latham, whose filamentous 

 tongue is used for extracting small insects from between the broken bark on 

 the stems of trees; which are climbed by this bird somewhat in the same 

 manner as a Woodpecker. See Lewin's Birds of New Holland. A more 

 beautiful connection between the Scansores and the Tenuirostres could hardly 

 be imagined. 



+ This I infer, from the circumstance that all the Nectiferous birds I have 

 seen in a state of nature, rarely, if ever, bend their head downward while in 

 the act of feeding. This is particularly observable in the Humming birds; 

 who, before they thrust their tongue into a flower, always get rather below it, 

 bending their head upwards, while hovering on the wing and sucking the 

 juices. This attitude is admirably represented in Wilson's inimitable figure 

 cf Trochilus colubris. Am. Orn. vol. 8. pi. 10. 



