62 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



tralian bush it will at once strike the traveller 

 from the home country how comparatively tame 

 the birds are, probably owing to their less ac- 

 quaintance with civilized man and his extermin- 

 ating propensities. Many of the birds which I 

 will now mention are, of course, not confined to 

 Mount Wellington, but may be found all over the 

 country wherever suitable conditions prevail. 



A great many of the Tasmanian species also 

 occur on the mainland of Australia, but a con- 

 siderable proportion are distinct species, with very 

 closely related forms upon the other side of Bass's 

 Straits. The most characteristic family of birds 

 which haunt the Tasmanian and Australian forests 

 is that of the Meliphagidae, or Honey-eaters, a 

 family of Passerine birds, which take the place 

 in Australasia which is filled by the Humming-birds 

 of tropical South America. The Meliphagidae in- 

 clude a great number of genera of very various size 

 and appearance, the majority being small, but a 

 few, such as the peculiar Wattle-bird, being as 

 large as a pigeon and of a very anomalous appear- 

 ance. They are all characterized, however, by 

 the possession of a remarkably long tongue, ending 

 in a fine pencil of stiff bristles, with which the 

 birds extract the honey from the Eucalypts and 

 other flowering shrubs that grow in such profu&ion 

 in these regions. Although essentially honey- 

 eaters, practically all the species are insectivorous 

 as well, catching the insects which are attracted 

 to the flowering shrubs, and I^ have frequently 



