THE WARTY-FACED HONEY-EATER. 73- 



insects, which it picks out with the greatest dexterity. Should a person curious to observe its motions 

 go very near, it winds round so as to keep on the further side of the tree, but seldom flies off. Should 

 it meet with a horizontal branch, it can easily proceed along its lower surface, although in that case it 

 usually prefers the sides or upper part. "When it has searched the branch it flies off to another, or 

 continues to ascend the stem ; and when it has attained the higher branches, it flies off to the base of 

 a neighbouring tree, and thus proceeds unceasingly. Indeed, I have seldom observed one a single 

 moment at rest. Yet, like other birds, it has its period of cessation from labour, and in the breeding- 

 season it is amusing to observe the gambols of a pair, which may be seen chasing each other along 

 the trunk of a tree, perching for a moment on the branches, and then scudding along, all the while 

 emitting their shrill and feeble cries. These birds are easily shot, for, like the Gold-crested Kinglet 

 and Coal Tit, they seem to pay little attention to a person approaching them, insomuch that I have 

 been within six feet of one, which yet did not fly off, but merely crept round to the other side of the 

 tree. While thus employed it utters every now and then a very low chirp, and when flying from 

 one tree to another, repeats this cry more frequently and somewhat more loudly. I suppose that it is- 

 destitute of song, never having heard it emit modulated sounds. Its flight is generally short and 

 rapid, from the top of one tree to the base of another ; but it may sometimes be seen traversing a 

 space of several hundred yards, which it does with a quick and undulatory motion at a considerable 

 elevation." 



It is a permanent resident, occurs in all the wooded parts of the country, but is nowhere nume- 

 rous, and never appears in flocks. In winter it shifts about from place to place, generally accom- 

 panying a flock of Tits or Kinglets, but sometimes seeking for its food solitarily, seldom entering 

 small gardens, but often appearing in woods near houses, hedgerows, or even on large single trees. It 

 pairs in April, and about the beginning of May begins to construct its nest, which it places in some 

 hole in a tree, or rock, or among the roots in a mossy bank. It is composed of withered stocks and 

 blades of grasses, moss, fibrous roots, and other materials, and is lined with feathers. The eggs, from 

 five to seven or eight in number, are seven-and-a-half twelfths of an inch in length, five-twelfths in, 

 breadth, of a regular oval form, glossy white, sprinkled with dots and small patches of brownish-red, 

 often disposed in a broad belt near the larger end, and leaving the narrower half unspotted. Montague 

 states that "during the time of incubation the female is fed by the other sex, whenever she quits the 

 nest in search of food." The young are abroad by the middle of June, and there is reason to believe 

 that a second brood is frequently reared. 



THE FOURTH GROUP OF THE TURDIFORMES THE CINNYRIMORPH^E 



HONEY-EATERS. 



The Honey-eaters are distingxiished by their long extensile tongue, which in some of the species 

 is continued backwards under the skin over the head even as far as the eye, in the way which has 

 already been referred to in the Woodpeckers (Vol. III., pp. 334, 335). The bill is in most of the 

 species slender, rather long and curved, and very sharp at the tip, and is more hollowed than is usual 

 in the majority of birds. They have no rictal bristles. The greatest number of the Honey-eaters 

 come from Australia and Oceania, and in Africa and India they are replaced by the Sun-birds. The 

 above groups, in fact, form the only two families into which the Honey-eaters are divisible. 



The first family is 



THE MELIPHAGID^E, OR TRUE HONEY-EATERS. 



In this family the tongue is doubly cleft and pencilled at the tip ; the nostrils arc long, and shut 

 in with a large horny membrane on the upper edge. The bill is shorter than in the Sun-birds. As 

 mentioned above, the MeKpfaagida are entirely confined to Australia and Oceania. Speaking of them 

 in his great work on the " Birds of Australia," Mr. Gould remarks : " The Honey -eaters, or that 

 group of birds forming the family Melipliagidce, are unquestionably the peculiar and most striking 

 feature in Australian ornithology. They are, in fact, to the fauna what the Eucalypti, Banksice, and 

 M'-fnleucce are to the flora of Australia. The economy of these birds is so strictly adapted to those 

 trees that the one appears essential to the other ; for what can be more plain than that the brush-like 

 tongue is especially formed for gathering the honey from the flower-cups of the Eucalypti, or that their 



