Atistralian Birds in the Collection of the Linnean Society. 309 



their food, unlike that of the other families, is represented as 

 being exclusively on the wing. By the brilliancy again, and 

 varying lustre of their colours, these " gay creatures of the ele- 

 ment" evince their separation from the neighbouring groups, 

 and indeed from every other race of birds, of which the manners 

 are less aerial than their own, and the food less sublimated than 

 the nectar of flowers. 



In the New World again, a third group appears, the familj?^ 

 of Nectariniadce, in which a comparative strength of bill and legs 

 is exhibited, nearly equal to that which is found in many of the 

 more typical species of the Insessorcs. The wings are generally 

 shorter than those of the Cinni/rida, and diifer in their structure 

 also from them, the first quill-feather being long, almost equalling 

 the second in length, while that of the Old World family is short, 

 and, as before observed, nearly spurious. The tail in all the spe- 

 cies we have met with is even. These birds, distinguished by 

 their stronger conformation from those of the Normal Group, are 

 distinguished also by their habits. They do not feed exclusively 

 on the wing, bvit explore the nectaries of flowers as they hop 

 from branch to branch*. By their colours also they may be set 

 apart from the typical families. These, although in most spe- 

 cies bright and vivid, are decided colours, and not changeable in 

 difterent lights. 



In addition to these groups Australia furnishes another im- 

 portant accession to the Tenuirostres. No species of the before- 

 mentioned groups has hitherto been found in that country ; and 

 their place seems to be occupied by a group of considerable 

 extent, which preserve the same habits of feeding on vegetable 

 juices, but deviate from the typical character of the Tribe even 

 still further than the Nectariniadce. In the birds to which I 

 allude, or the family of Meliphagidce, the wings and tail show 

 an evident deficiency in the powers of flight, compared with 



* See these Traitsaciions, vol. xiv. p. 464. 



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