166 ZOSTEROPID^E. 



Family III. ZOSTEROPIDJE. 



Bill shorter than the head, widened at the gape, and with a prominent, 

 slightly arched culmen. Nostril placed in a short oval groove, which 

 reaches halfway down the bill from the gape to the tip, is covered by a 

 membrane, and opens in a slit. Tongue in Zostcrops split near the end 

 into two short filaments somewhat brush-like in appearance. Wing with 

 the bastard primary excessively small or absent. Tail square, considerably 

 shorter than the wing, of twelve feathers which have angular tips. Tarsi 

 with a few scales in front. 



They construct a neat cup- shaped nest, which is generally 

 placed near the extremity of a branch and apparently more 

 generally hung to, than supported by, the fork to which it is 

 attached. The eggs are unspotted, apparently always of a pale 

 bluish green colour and do not exceed five in a clutch. 



This family ranges over the Ethiopian region eastward to 

 New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. 



It is represented in the Ethiopian region by about thirty 

 known species, all of which, with the exception of Z. Senegal- 

 ensis, are apparently confined to the sub-region in which the 

 type was discovered. Twelve inhabit the African continent 

 and island of Socotra, and the remaining eighteen are confined 

 to the islands. 



Z. senegalensis inhabits the west, east, and north-east 

 sub-regions, for it ranges over Central and Eastern Africa 

 from 7° S. lat. to 16° N. lat., and westward into the Senegam- 

 bian district, as I find, in the British Museum, a typical 

 example from Bathurst agrees exactly with one from Manda 

 Island. Many ornithologists, however, still divide this species 

 into three or four sub-species, but I am not aware that anyone 

 can define their distinctive ranges, and there are no less than 

 nine distinct names to be divided amongst them. 



Z. anderssoni is only a large form representing Z. senega- 

 lensis in southern tropical Africa, south of about 10° S. lat. 



