INTRODUCTION. 
161 
ous blossoms. Audebert and Yieillot lean nearly 
to the same opinion of these birds being in a great 
measure meliphagous*, and they give figures and 
descriptions of several modifications in the structure 
of the tongue. In some it is long and bifid, being 
cleft even to the centre of its length, and occasion- 
ally these divisions are ciliated upon the sides ; in 
other species the tongue is in the form of a small 
brush or pencil, as among many of the True Honey- 
suckers. The more general form of the tongue, in 
the typical Nectariniad® which we have examined, 
is lengthened and slender, with a shortly bifid 
fringed apex, having the edges for the whole length 
turned over inwards, artificially forming a double 
tube, as exhibited in the annexed diagram of a sec- 
tion of the tongue of A r . fulginosa, but in another 
genus which we have introduced into the family 
( Arachnothera , Temm.), we have the tongue com- 
paratively short and hard. 
In their nidification, the Sun-birds also present 
some difference from the Humming-birds, though we 
perhaps know less about the nests and the places 
where their fabric is reared ; the exquisite structure 
and curious small size of those of the latter being 
objects of request or curiosity, even to many who do 
* The general name of the Malays is “ Chechop,” or the 
“ Suckers.” 
& 
VOL. V. 
