IG 



Australian honey-eaters, observes, — "I have been influenced by their approxi- 

 mation to these birds both in form and habits, and to which they exhibit a 

 further degree of affinity in the form and structure of their nests, but not in 

 the colouring of their eggs, which are always blue." But I would remark, that 

 a stronger indication of this affinity than any mentioned by Mr. Gould, is to 

 be found in the structure of the tongue, which is slightly pencilled at the tip, 

 and proclaims at once the meliphagous habits of the group. 



Members of this genus ai'e scattered through Southern Africa, India, 

 China, and Japan, but the species are most numerous in the sea-girt lands of 

 Australasia and Polynesia, where each groujD of islands apjoears to have one 

 or more species peculiar to itself. Mr. Gould records three well marked 

 species from Australia, two from Lord Howe's Island, and two more from 

 Norfolk and Phillip Islands. There is one species {Zosterops Jlaviceps) 

 peculiar to the Fiji Islands, another (Z. Jlavifrons) to the New Hebrides Group, 

 and another [Z. conspicillata) to the Ladrone or Maiian Islands. Two species 

 inhabit New Caledonia {^Z. xanthochroa and Z. griseonota) ; one (^Z. cinerea) 

 is recorded from the Caroline Group, and another (Z. inelanops) from the 

 Loyalty Islands. 



The New Zealand representative of the genus has been pronounced by 

 competent authority to be identical with Zosterops lateralis, Lath. ( = cceru- 

 lescens, Gould), an inhabitant of Tasmania, New South "Wales, and South 

 Australia. 



Generic characters. — Bill moderate and slightly curved, with the culmen 

 curved, and the sides comj)ressed to the tip whicli is acute and emarginated ; 

 the gonys long and slightly ascending ; the gape furnished with very short 

 weak bristles ; the nostrils basal and placed in a broad groove, with the 

 opening closed by a lunate scale. Wings moderate ; with the first quill very 

 small, and the fourth and fifth equal and longest. Tail moderate, bi-oad and 

 slightly emai"ginated in the middle. Tarsi rather longer than the middle toe, 

 and covered in front with broad scales. Toes rather long ; with the outer toe 

 rather longer than the inner and united at. its base ; the hind toe long, strong 

 and armed with a long curved claw. [G. R. Gray.) 



Zosterops lateralis, Latham. 



The Silver- eye. 



Tau-hou, Kanohi-mowhiti, Poporohe, and Iringataii, of the natives. 



Zosterops ccerulescens, Gould. — lid. Bh. Birds of Australia, Yol. i., p. 587. 

 Zosterops dorsalis, Vig. and Hors., in Linn. Trans., Yol. xv., p. 235 j 



Gould, Birds of Australia, Fol., Yol. iv., pi. 81. 

 Sylvia lateralis. Lath. — Ind. Orn. Supp., p. Iv. 

 Certhia coirulescens, Lath.— /d., p. xxxviii. 



