154 INTRODUCTION. 



group we have the colours blue and green, varied 

 by black; but almost without lustre or play of 

 colour, and the throat and crown patches in a 

 few just indicated ; one or tw r o species also are of 

 unobtrusive tints, and in their entire form re- 

 mind us of, and in fact run into, the Melipha- 

 gidae and Titmouse warblers. In the Australian 

 and Pacific groups, black and red are the prevail- 

 ing colours, without lustre ; the crown and throat 

 patches marked by a difference in the structure 

 of the feathers, and the general appearance of the 

 birds in many parts allying them to Myzomela. 

 Thus, from a portion of the plumage of the birds 

 only, and without any assistance from the more 

 essential parts of their forms, we could tell with 

 nearly certainty to what division of the world the 

 species belonged. The colours which we have been 

 now alluding to are those adorning the male, and 

 that in the African birds, according to Vaillant, 

 continues only during the breeding season ; so soon 

 as the duties of this important period have passed, 

 the same author states that they return or moult 

 into the unobtrusive dress of the winter or rainy 

 season ; and as the time of change again approaches, 

 birds may be seen more or less spotted, or in dif- 

 ferent stages of advancement towards their most 

 splendid state. At the same time also the long 

 caudal plumes are shed or lost, these also being 

 only of temporary duration, as an adornment in the 

 time of pairing and incubation. The colouring of 

 the plumage in winter, together with that of the 



