ZOSTEROPID3 ZOSTEROPS 303 



Iris brownish-yellow ; bill, legs and feet bluish-grey. 



Length 4-75; wing 2-35 ; tail 1-85 ; tarsus 0-70; culmen 0'50. 



Adult female. Similar to the male in plumage. 



Distribution. Throughout Cape Colony and Natal, ranging 

 into Southern Great Namaqua Land, the Orange Free State, the 

 Southern Transvaal, and Zululand. A very common species in 

 most districts of Cape Colony, being abundant near Cape Town, 

 Swellendam, Knysna, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, and East 

 London, and more or less numerous over the greater portion of 

 the Karroo. Very abundant in Upper Natal, less so near the 

 coast. 



Habits. The common White-eye, when not breeding, is invari- 

 ably in small family parties, consisting of the parent-birds and the 

 young of the preceding season, or frequently, of several family 

 parties conjoined. They generally attract attention by the some- 

 what sharp " chirp " that every individual bird constantly utters 

 both while feeding and when flying from tree to tree. They are, 

 as a rule, extremely tame, feeding undisturbed within a few feet 

 of an observer, diligently hunting over the leaves and twigs, and 

 peering into the blossoms in search of small larvae and insects, and 

 especially of some of the scale-insects (Schizoneurce). At certain 

 seasons they feed to a considerable extent on soft fruits, apricots, 

 plums, and especially blackberries ; they are fond, too, of the 

 saccharine juices of many flowers, and, in the Municipal Gardens at 

 Cape Town, constantly resort to various favourite shrubs, notably 

 the Australian " Bottle-brush," for the sake of the nectar of the 

 blossoms. From constantly probing the corollae of flowers, the 

 feathers of the head are nearly always more or less dusted over 

 with pollen, and these little birds, like the Sunbirds, must play a 

 considerable part in the cross-fertilisation of many plants. 



The nest is built among the smaller twigs at the extremity of 

 a horizontal branch of a bush or low tree. It is very small, of a 

 shallow cup-shape, and is neatly constructed of fine tendrils and 

 moss, glued together with cobweb and frequently decorated on the 

 outside with pieces of grey lichen. The interior is lined with 

 hair. The eggs, four or five in number, are unspotted pale blue. 

 They measure 0'66 x 0-50. 



Both parents incubate the eggs, which are hatched at the end 

 of ten days. The nestlings are fed on soft larvae, small cater- 

 pillars and the saccharine juices of flowers by both male and female. 



