53 



hundred and fifty species reaching the United States, and only 

 one, the Scarlet Tanager (see Case B and Group No. 29), reach- 

 ing their northern border. Many of the tropical species (see 

 Case F) present striking combinations of gorgeous coloring, while 

 many others are as plainly attired as the Sparrows and Finches, 

 which they sometimes closely resemble. 



The Honey-Creepers and their allies (family Civrehidd) are 

 closely allied to the Tanagers — in fact fairly grading into them ; 

 they are not only strictly American but exclusively tropical, and 

 vie (see Case F) with the finest of the Tanagers in brilliancy of 

 plumage. They have slender bills, which they insert into flowers 

 for insects, hopping and creeping about among the slender twigs 

 with great agility (see Fig. 17). 



The American Wood-Warblers (family MniotiltidcE) are closely 

 related both to the Honey-Creepers and the Tanagers, with which 

 they closely intergrade, and of which they are to some extent the 

 North American representatives. A few genera, however, reach 

 the tropics, where one or two are exclusively represented. Of 

 the hundred known species about seventy are found in the 

 United States (see Case B) ; the rest (Case F) are tropical. 

 Several of the leading northern forms are shown with their nests 

 and eggs in the Group Collection (Groups Nos. 4-8 and 21-25). 



An interesting group of semitropical Old World slender-billed 

 Song-birds are the Honey-eaters (family Mcliphagidcc) — about one 

 hundred species, confined mostly to Australia and the Pacific 

 Islands. (See Case S.) They are provided with brush-tipped 

 tongues, enabling them to gather the honey which constitutes their 

 food from the flower-cups of the Eucalypti. Some of them are 

 curiously ornamented with tufts of yellow feathers on the sides, 

 and with wattles at the base of the bill. 



Allied to them are the Sun-birds (family Ncclariniido'), about two 

 hundred species, widely distributed within the Old World tropics, 

 but most numerously represented in Africa (Case S). They 

 rival the Hummingbirds of the New World in the splendor of their 

 plumage, and, with their slender bills and similar styles of orna- 

 mentation, often closely resemble them in general appearance. 



The Flower-peckers and their allies (family Disceiidce), num- 

 bering about one hundred species, and closely related to the 



