aA , . 2 ’ 7. 7 eae 
tT ae 
‘ 
: Ap) 
iy ay ‘ 
146 ON THE CLASSIFICATION — BI 
7 », 
but whether the direct passage is ual wil 
billed honeysuckers (Dicewm Cuv.), or by the sf 
suckers (Arachnothera Tem.), is uncertain. a“ Pp 
mage of the meliphagous birds of New Holland 
almost universally dull, or at least destitute of - - tho 
gay and beautiful tints which are so strikingly devel pe 
in the sunbirds: a rich golden green, varied on 
under parts with steel-blue, purple, bright orange, 0 
vivid crimson, decorates nearly all the species, and pro. 
duces a brilliancy of colours only rivalled by those of h 
humming-birds. The bill is very long, slender, and 
acutely pointed, the margins being dentated in the 
most regular and delicate manner ; yet these teeth ai 
so small as scarcely to be seen by the naked eye: 
tongue is formed into a bifid tube, or rather, 
we suspect, into two flattened filaments ; thus differt 
ing materially from that of the honeysuckers, whick 
always ends in a brush: the bill also is never notched 
The difference between the two structures is softenet 
down by the intervention of the nectar-birds (iVee- 
tarinia Ill.), whose bill shows a union of both charae- 
ters, —the margins being finely dentated, and the tip 
distinctly notched. The species of the latter are few. 
and while Cinnyris is restricted to the tropics of the 
Old World, Nectarinia represents them in the New 
Some few other forms, found in Australia and in the 
Oceanic Islands, belong to this group, and they « 
arranged in the genera Melithreptes and Diceum, but 
their habits are imperfectly understood. a 
(165.) In the Trocuiim., or humming-birds, we 
have the full developement of the suctorial perfection 
belonging to this tribe. The bill, from its soft and deli- 
cate structure, appears adapted for no other purpose thai 
to protect a long bifid and flattened tongue*, darted bh 
these little creatures into the nectary of flowers, for th 
purpose of licking the honey: but, like the rest of t 
tribe, the humming-birds are partly insectivorous ; 
Pee, 
ny. 
And 
* The tongue of the humming-birds has always een described as 7/1 
tar ; but in all that I have examined, the two filaments are perinan 
