THE IDYLL OF THE BLOSSOM-BIRDS 87 



Honey-Birds have done their part with right good 

 will. 



Indeed, they have gone one better than their 

 original duty of fertilising flowers, by taking to an 

 intermittent diet of insects. It may be, as Mr. 

 Pycraft (of the British Museum) suggests, that the 

 Honeyeaters began to vary their "menu" with 

 insects through brushing these up with the pollen 

 in flowers; but, at all events, the fact now is that 

 most of our "sweet-tongued" birds go out of their 

 way to catch insects. This point may readily be 

 proved by anyone who cares to watch the Wattle- 

 bird or any of the common smaller Honeyeaters at 

 work, and it is a point that should be placed to the 

 birds' credit by those fruit-farmers who, seeing the 

 long-billed birds in the orchard, are apt to overlook 

 the service they render, and do something rash with 

 a gun. 



It has been suggested earlier that the Honey- 

 eaters, more than all others of our avian revellers, 

 are of vitality compact. They have to be. Flowers 

 may come, but flowers quickly go, and it is necessary 

 that their kin-spirits "make the most of what they 

 have to spend," and, moreover, keep moving about 

 as the seasonal flow of the blossoms requires. The 

 majority of the Honey-Birds, therefore, are born 

 travellers, or, to be more precise, confirmed 

 wanderers happy-go-lucky vagrants, who follow 

 the fluctuations of the flowers from district to dis- 

 trict, or State to State, according to the necessities 

 of the day and the hour. 



That, of course, is in the cooler months. Later 

 on the birds must needs remain loyal to a particular 



