114 THE WORLD'S BIRDS. 



There are many Tree- Starlings which seldom come 

 to the ground, and hop when they are there (such as 

 the Hill-Mynahs (Eulabes) of the East), but the glossy 

 plumage of these will distinguish them from most birds 

 with which they might be confounded. 



Besides the glossy, cream-spotted European Star- 

 ling (Sturnus vulgaris), widely spread in the Old World 

 naturally, and now established by importation in New 

 Zealand, Tasmania, South Australia and the United 

 States, the House-Mynah of India (Acridotheres tristis) 

 is a very familiar bird, ranging widely in the East, 

 where it especially affects human habitations, and 

 having been introduced into Australia, New Zealand, 

 Hawaii, and many tropical islands, such as Mauritius. 

 It is larger than a Thrush, brown, with black head, 

 yellow bill and feet, and wings and tail marked with 

 white. Like the European Starling, it will learn to 

 talk ; but the true talking Mynahs (Eulabes) are very 

 different birds, glossy black and heavy in form, with 

 yellow head-wattles ; they are tree-haunting fruit- 

 eaters, living in forests, not near habitations. The Ox- 

 peckers (Buphaga), brown African birds with red or 

 yellow bills, which creep over animals, feeding on 

 their parasites, are placed with the Starlings. 



Sugar-birds (Ccerebince) of the West Indies and 

 South America are small slender-billed species, often 

 very brightly coloured, with apparently much the same 

 habits as the Sun-birds and Flower-peckers of the Old 

 World ; they also build domed nests. 



Few are well known, but the Yellow-winged Sugar- 

 bird (Coereba cyanea) is too familiar from the use of 

 its skin for decoration, and has been kept caged success- 

 fully in England ; it is about the size of a small Tit, 

 the male purple, with metallic sea-green crown, con- 

 cealed yellow in the wings, and red feet. The female 

 is dull green. The Purple Sugar- bird (C. ccerulea) is 

 almost all purple, with yellow feet. 



