INTRODUCTION. 161 



ous blossoms. Audebert and Vieillot lean nearly 

 to the same opinion of these birds being in a great 

 measure meliphagous *, and they give figures and 

 descriptions of several modifications in the structure 

 of the tongue. In some it is long and bifid, being 

 cleft even to the centre of its length, and occasion- 

 ally these divisions are ciliated upon the sides ; in 

 other species the tongue is in the form of a small 

 brush or pencil, as among many of the True Honey- 

 suckers. The more general form of the tongue, in 

 the typical Nectariniada3 which we have examined, 

 is lengthened and slender, with a shortly bifid 

 fringed apex, having the edges for the whole length 

 turned over inwards, artificially forming a double 

 tube, as exhibited in the annexed diagram of a sec- 

 tion of the tongue of N. fulginosa, but in another 



Q_D 



genus which we have introduced into the familj 

 (Arachnothera, Temm.), we have the tongue com- 

 paratively short and hard. 



In their nidification, the Sun-birds also present 

 some difference from the Humming-birds, though we 

 perhaps know less about the nests and the places 

 where their fabric is reared ; the exquisite structure 

 and curious small size of those of the latter being 

 objects of request or curiosity, even to many who do 



* The general name of the Malays is " Chechop, 1 " or the 

 '-' Suckers." 



L 



