444 PERCHING BIRDS. 



Taking as an example the green-backed white-eye (Z. gouldi) of Australia, 

 we find this bird is well known to settlers as being exceedingly partial 

 to garden-fruit. Being particularly fond of figs and grapes, it consequently 

 abounds in all the gardens where those plants are cultivated, and it is as often to 

 be seen and as numerous as sparrows in England ; besides feeding upon fruits, it 

 catches flies while on the wing, after the manner of the true flycatchers. Its note 

 is a single plaintive one, several times repeated ; and its flight is irregular and of 

 short duration. The breeding-season commences in August and ends in November ; 

 the nests during the earlier part of the season invariably contain two eggs, but 

 in those found in October and November the number is increased to three, and 

 rarely to four. The nest is small, compact, and formed of dried wiry grasses, 

 bound together with the hairy tendrils of small plants and wool, the inside being 

 lined with very minute fibrous roots. The eggs are greenish blue, without spots 

 or markings. In South Australia the white-eye just described is replaced by a 

 grey-backed species which frequents gardens, building its nest and rearing its 

 young in shrubs and rose-trees bordering the walks. This species make a very 

 neat nest, and its eggs are of a beautiful pale blue. The green-backed white-eye 

 has the crown and upper-parts olive-green ; the wings and tail are brown edged 

 with olive-green ; the throat and under tail-coverts light greenish yellow ; and the 

 breast and under-parts grey, tinged with brown. 



THE SUN-BIRDS. 

 Family NECTARINIID^. 



The sun-birds are a tropical family corresponding in the Old World to the 

 humming-birds of the New; and are characterised by the long, slender, curved 

 bill, with the sides compressed along to the tip, which is acute, and in which both 

 mandibles are finely serrated for the terminal third of their edges, the wings being 

 of moderate size, and consisting of ten primaries, the tail being more or less 

 elongated, with the middle feathers sometimes prolonged beyond the rest, the 

 metatarsus being usually short, and the toes of moderate size, the claws being 

 curved and sharp. The sexes are very different; the males having bright 

 metallic tints in the plumage, while the females are dull in colour. Most numer- 

 ously represented in the African continent, the sun-birds are fairly plentiful in 

 the Indian region, and likewise occur in Australasia. 



Typical The birds of the genus Nectarinia have the bill long, curved, 



Sun-Birds. anc [ acu te, while the wings are moderate and rounded, the tail broad 

 and slightly rounded, with the central feathers lengthened and narrowed, the 

 metatarsus short, and covered in front with very broad scales. The majority of 

 these sun-birds are found in Africa, but the Australian sun-bird represents the 

 genus in Australasia. 



Malachite One of the best known of the South African sun-birds is the 



Sun-Bird. malachite sun-bird (N. famosa). According to Captain Shelley, 



this species is partial to the blossoms of the aloe, among which it finds an 



abundance of its insect food ; but it feeds also upon saccharine juice, extracted from 



