792 The Sparrow-like Birds 



it a very shy but lively bird, continually jerking its body and tail, and uttering 

 its harsh, clamorous notes. 



The Red -shouldered Glossy Starling (Lamprocolius phcenicopterus) of the 

 eastern portions of South Africa is likewise a handsome species, with the plu- 

 mage of a sea-green, glossed on head, rump, tail, and thighs with blue, and on the 

 ear-coverts with violet, while the greenish blue shoulder-coverts are margined 

 by a flame-colored and violet band; its length is about ten inches. It much 

 resembles the European Starling (Sturnus -vulgaris) in manners and habits, fre- 

 quently congregating in large flocks, and is often met with near villages. Its 

 food, according to Mr. Andersson, is very various, consisting of seeds, berries, 

 and insects, and it is very destructive to fruit gardens. Its nest, well lined with 

 feathers, is placed in a cavity in a tree. The Splendid Glossy Starling (L. splen- 

 dens) of West Africa has the general plumage of a brilliant metallic golden 

 green, and the Green Glossy Starling of Northeast Africa and Senegambia is 

 glossy steel-green and steel-blue. Their habits are in general similar to those 

 of the other species. 



THE HONEYEATERS 



(Family Meliphagida) 



A resident of the New World visiting Australia and certain of the near-by 

 islands might be excused for imagining that he had discovered, in the numerous 

 active, bright-plumaged birds clinging amongst the flowers a bond of avian 

 affinity between these widely separated parts of the world; but, although some- 

 what suggesting the Hummingbirds, the Honeyeaters, for such they are, are 

 really widely separated from them. They are, moreover, as peculiar and strik- 

 ing a feature in the ornis of the Australian and New Zealand regions as are the 

 Hummingbirds on the American continent, in fact, as Mr. Gould says, they are 

 to the fauna what the peculiar eucalypts, banksias, and Melaleuca are to the 

 flora. To go farther, each seems to be essential to the other, the trees supply- 

 ing nectar and attracting insects, while the birds render important assistance in 

 transferring pollen from one flower to another. 



The Honeyeaters constitute a fairly compact group of mostly small birds, 

 few members of which exceed a Thrush or Jay in size, while most of them are 

 hardly more than half that length. They have a slender, sharp-pointed, more 

 or less lengthened and decurved bill, basal nostrils, and a long, protractile tongue 

 which is bifid and terminates in a brush, the whole constituting a curious suc- 

 torial organ. The lower mandible is usually serrated, but no group characters 

 can be drawn from the wings or tail, as they, together with the tarsi, vary in 

 length and shape. A marked peculiarity of many forms, however, is the presence 

 of bare spaces on various parts of the head, while wattles on the ears, cheeks, 

 or throat are of common occurrence. The prevailing colors of the plumage are 

 green and yellow, blue being entirely absent and red present in the members 

 of one subfamily only ; but there are occasionally brilliant metallic reflections. 



