126 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS 



SILYER-EYE 



(White-eye, Ring-eye, Blight-bird), 



Zosterops ccerulesceiis, Lath. 



Zos-te'rops se-roles'ens. 

 Zoster, a girdle ; ops, an eye ; ccerulus, dark green. 



Zosterops dorsalis, Gould, "Birds of Australia," fol., vol. iv., 



pi. 81. 



Geographical Distribution. — Areas 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 



Key to the Species. — A ring of short white feathers round the 

 eye ; crown olive- green ; back brown ; under surface not uni- 

 form ; throat white, sometimes tinged with olive. 



Altogether there are 88 species of Silver-eyes known, 6 

 of which are found in Australia, and only one of them in 

 Victoria. That one is generally to be seen in favourable 

 numbers in different places in proper seasons ; for it has 

 a nomadic tendency. The first of all Silver-eyes was 

 described from a specimen obtained in Victoria, and the 

 largest species now occupies the small island of Norfolk. 



The family-flocks are generally eight in number, and as 

 they travel through the orchards a slight warfare is made 

 upon them, for, in spring and summer they feast upon small 

 fruit, in autumn upon late apples. Certainly its taste for 

 commercial fruits is cultivated when opportunity stares it 

 in the face, but what about the good which I am sure it 

 does 1 I remember seeing a Silver-eye hunting along a 

 branch of a tall pear tree. An insect fell from its hiding 

 place, and simultaneously the bird swooped perpendicularly 

 in time to catch the lesser form, and with a right-angled 

 movement escaped the ground, to which it was unpleasantly 

 close. 



