532 



The Living Animals of the World 



coa.ht of gold-crests from the Continent. "In autumn," writes Mr. Howard Saunders, "immense 

 flocks sometimes arrive on our east coast, extending quite across England and the Irish 

 Channel, and into Ireland. In 1882 the migration wave of this description, commencing on 

 August 6 and lasting for ninety-two days, reached from the Channel to the Faeroes; in 1883 

 the migration lasted eighty-two days ; and again in 188-4 for a period of eighty-seven days. . . . 

 On such occasions bushes in gardens on the coast are covered with birds as with a swarm of 

 bees; crowds flutter round the lanterns of lighthouses, and the rigging of fishing-smacks in 

 the North Sea is thronged with weary travellers. In April a return migration occurs." 



We pass now to the consideration of a few families of birds unknown in Britain, but 

 interesting on account of the fact that they afford us another set of instances of adaptation to 

 attain particular ends, so frequently to be inet with in Nature. All the birds in question, 

 though probably not related, have peculiarly modified tongues, apparently specially designed 

 to aid in sucking up honey from flowers. 



The first group for consideration are the Hoxey-eaters of New Zealand and Australia. 

 So great is the transformation which the tongue in 

 these birds has undergone, that it forms one of 

 the most elaborate organs of its kind, sur- 

 passing even that of the Humming-birds 

 A description of this organ without 

 the aid of anatomical terms and 

 diagrams would be useless. 

 Suffice it to say it is long, 

 callable of being tlirust 

 out of the mouth, 

 and brush-like 

 It is used to 

 thrust up 



lliMohy f. liiid] 



COAL-TITS. 



[ ir,»;,„ 



the tubes 

 of honey- 

 bearing flowers, 

 as well for the sake 

 of the juice as for the 

 insects gathered in such 

 situations to feed on it. 



The best known of the 

 Honey-eaters is the PoE, or Parsox- 

 BiKD, of New Zealand. Glossy black in 

 colour, with vived green and blue reflec- 

 tions, it is rendered still more attractive by a 

 pair of white tufts of feathers hanging from 

 the front upper part of the neck, whilst on the 

 back of the neck in the same region the feathers 

 are of a loose structure, long, and curled forwards. Other honey-eaters are the White-eyes, 

 Sux-BiRDS, and Flower-peckers. 



The White-eyes, so called from a ring of white feathers around the eye, have a wide 

 distribution, being found in Australia, India, Africa, Madagascar, and Japan." Besides honey 

 they are very partial to fruit, particularly figs and grapes, and also capture insects on the wing, 

 after the fashion of fly-catchers. 



Th(^ SuN-MRDS correspond in the Old World to the Humming-birds in the New, having, 

 like the latter, a metallic plumage, varied in its hues and wondrous in its beauty; but 

 they are not entirely dependent upon this lustre for their charm, for much of their 

 splendour is gained from tlie non-metallic portion of the plumage, which is often vividly 



These birds show the wliite patcli on the Dape very distinctly. It is 

 a coninioTi British bird, etayirif; with us the wliole year rounLl- 



