68 STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES. 



swallow the juice compressed from it, when it is 

 returned within the beak. The Trichoglossi, or 

 Honey-eating Parrakeets, are found in New 

 G-uinea, and the Moluccas, but Australia is the 

 great nursery for the birds of this form. Mr. 

 Gould, in his " Introduction to the Birds of 

 Australia," merely calls their tongue pencilled, 

 and describes their swift and arrow-like flight, 

 and their mode of dashing among the branches, 

 the flowers of which yield them food. As far as 

 our own observation goes, the tongue of these 

 Honey-eating Parrakeets terminates in filaments, 

 constituting a little brush or pencil, and is not 

 in any respect similar to that of the Humming- 

 birds ; it is not a truly suctorial organ, but an 

 organ for absorbing or licking up the semifluid 

 nectar. These Trichoglossi invariably cling while 

 feeding ; and associated together in vast flocks, 

 they make the woods re-echo with their deafen- 

 ing cries. 



We may, then, confidently state that the 

 tongue of the Trochilidce is unique, and pre- 

 eminently characteristic of habits and manners 

 distinct from those of the rest of the feathered 

 race. 



From these observations we now turn to a con- 

 templation of the Trochilidce, as respects other 

 points of their economy. And, first, we may 

 advert to their nidification a subject on which 

 much may be said, not without leaving room for 

 future details. The nidification of the Hum- 



