462 MELIPHAGID.E, OR HONEY-SUCKERS. UPUPIDJi. 



nothing more than a shrill cry. The Sun-Birds range over 

 Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Ocean ; and certain species, also 

 included in this family, are natives of South America. 



417. Iii the MELIPHAGID^E, or Honey-suckers, a family 

 peculiar to New Holland and the neighbouring islands, the 

 characters exhibited by the typical groups appear softened down, 

 as it were ; so that their conformation is less peculiar. Thus 

 the bill and legs are stronger ; and the powers of flight are less 

 conspicuous. The tongue is still adapted for suction; being 

 furnished with a pencil of delicate filaments at its extremity; but 

 it is not nearly so extensible as in the Humming-Birds and Sun- 

 Birds ; and the branches of the os hyoides do not pass round the 

 skull. Besides the juices of flowers, and the insects obtained 

 with them, many of these Birds feed on berries, for which their 

 greater strength of bill adapts them ; and one species is said to 

 pick holes in the bark, and to draw forth insects from these, by 

 means of its long tongue, very much in the manner of the Wood- 

 pecker. The Honeysuckers deposit their eggs in cup-shaped 

 nests, placed in the fork of small branches near the ground. 



418. Of the more aberrant families of this order, we may 

 first mention that of UPUPID^E, or Hoopoes, which seems to 

 connect it with the family CORVID^E among the Conirostres ; for 

 whilst some of the species it includes are evidently allied closely 

 to the suctorial groups we have just been considering, others (and 

 among these the Hoopoe itself) bear a close relationship to certain 

 forms of the Crow family. They have all a general agreement, 

 however, in the form of their beak ; which is elongated and 

 curved, but stronger than in the preceding families. TheProme- 

 rops and its allies have an extensible tongue, divided at the tip, 

 as in the Humming-Birds ; and probably feed upon the saccha- 

 rine juices of plants, insects, and soft fruits. Many of these 

 Birds are remarkable for the beauty of their plumage, and for its 

 singular arrangement. The Superb Promerops of New Guinea 

 is four feet in length, from the extremity of the bill to the end 

 of the tail ; the tail being extremely long in proportion to the 

 body, which is delicate and slender. In this respect it is analo- 

 gous to the Birds of Paradise, which are inhabitants of the same 

 region ; and it also resembles them in the metallic lustre of its 



