94 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



Honeyeater. That was one of the few occasions 

 upon which I ever saw a Sun-Bird resting. Embodi- 

 ment of the tropic Summer, without any of its 

 langour, he (or she) has all the high vitality of the 

 famous Humming-Bird, and, added to the ability to 

 hover in front of a flower, the Sun-Bird has a spas- 

 modic habit of rushing pell-mell away on an aimless 

 errand that concerns no one, not even itself. 



Marking all this, would you not expect such a 

 bird, when nesting-duties interrupted its flickering 

 and frisking, to build and brood somewhere in the 

 tree-tops to approach the alleged habit of the 

 Birds of Paradise, which once were fabled to carry 

 their eggs on their backs? But, note the anomaly. 

 For all its freedom, all its airy aloofness, all its self- 

 centred revelry in sunshine and flowers, the Sun- 

 Bird chooses, in seven cases out of ten, to suspend 

 its domed cradle from man-made buildings. Is this 

 done in spite of or because of its elfin life? The 

 answer would seem to be this: The Sun-Bird, like 

 the Swift, is too electrically busy to have time to 

 become afraid of slow-moving humanity. Angels 

 may weep at some of the tricks performed in the 

 name of human authority, but to this independent 

 little Ariel (an Ariel in all but servitude) Man 

 simply does not matter. By the same token, how- 

 ever, if earth-cumbered folk choose to provide 

 flowers upon which birds may feed, and verandahs 

 under which nests may conveniently be hung, it is 

 decreed that no Sun-Bird need carry its pride to the 

 point of being standoffish. 



Reference having been made, in passing, to the 

 lyric music offered by several of the blossom-birds, 



