84 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



Sugar-birds {Ccerebd) and their allies, which are 

 supposed to be related to the fruit- eating Finch- 

 like Tanagers, and certainly grade into them if a 

 whole series is examined, though the typical long- 

 billed Caerebas are so like Sun-birds that if they 

 had been Oriental birds they certainly would have 

 been classed with them. The most charming of 

 all, the Yellow-winged Sugar-bird {Coereba cyaned) 

 has often been exhibited at our large bird-shows. 



It is not surprising that the honey-sucking habit 

 should have originated independently in several 

 groups, for it occurs now and then in quite ordinary 

 birds as an occasional trait. Gilbert White has 

 described how the Lesser Whitethroat runs up the 

 stem of the crown-inaperial lily to sip the honey 

 from the flowers ; and in India the Pied Mynah 

 (Siurmpastor contra), although the most insectivorous 

 of the Mynahs in the ordinary way, attends without 

 fail at the blossoming of the magnificent red- 

 flowering cotton-tree. 



It is not without interest in this connection to 

 note that our Starling, introduced into New 

 Zealand, has learnt the habit of drinking honey, in 

 this case from the flowers of the New Zealand flax 

 (Phormium tenax). As this, plant is grown in some 

 parts of England, it would be of interest to know if 

 our Starlings' here have learnt this habit ; if not, 

 it would seem probable that in New Zealand the 

 introduced birds have picked it up from a nativQ 

 honey- eater, the Tui or Parson-rbi?d (Prastkimat^ 

 dera novie^^ealandice), w\^^ curiously resensbles 



