10 NECTARINIIDzIC. 



b". Bill shorter and stouter, much shorter 

 than the tarsus ; tongue not extensile ; 

 frontal feathers rounded. 

 c 2 . Bastard primary absent or very small Zostekopid.e. 

 d 3 . Bastard primary large, about half the 



length of the next one Parisomid.e. 



b 1 . Nostrils not placed in a groove . . . . Parid.e. 

 b. Tarsus not longer than the hind toe with claw, 

 aud the foot adapted for climbing up the 

 trunks of trees Certhiid.e. 



Family I. NECTABINIIDJE. 



Tongue : long, extensile, with the end bifurcated. Bill long, slender, 

 and sharply pointed. Nostril, placed in an oval groove, covered by a 

 membrane and opens in a slit. Wing moderate, with the third and fourth 

 primaries longest. Tail of twelve feathers. Tarsi scutellated. Toes armed 

 with curved and acute claws. Feathers of the head short and rounded. 



This family is peculiar to the Old World and most of its 

 members possess bright metallic colours which has caused them 

 to be known as Sunbirds. They rival the Humming-birds, 

 their representatives in the new world, in the brilliancy of 

 their plumage, and like them are admirably adapted by nature 

 to assist in the fertilisation of plants by diving their long 

 slender bills into the calices of flowers in search of the honey 

 and small insects on which they feed, and it is a curious 

 fact that some members of both these families have the 

 cutting edges of their mandibles very finely serrated. 



Unlike the Humming-birds their wings are too short for 

 poising in the air before the flowers to feed, but with their 

 strong feet they cling on to the clustered blossoms and dip 

 their long extensile tongues into the nectar ; hanging often 

 with their backs downwards, when feeding, like the Tits 

 (Paridce). 



The Sunbirds are strongly represented throughout the 

 Ethiopian Region, but none of the species found there extend 

 into Asia beyond the shores of the Red Sea. 



