SPINEBILL. 
wings make a peculiar clapping sound. I noticed many of these birds at 
Olinda, Victoria, bathing in a water course on the 12th July, 1908. The day 
was a mild one for the season of the year but the water was extremely cold. 
The birds were attracted to the locality by the presence of heath in flower. 
They entered the water wliile on the wing and splashed joyfully for a few 
seconds ou the surface. I have often seen a mature bird chasing a young one, 
a few months old, through the scrub. Occasionally they null engage in mimic 
combat on a limb or in the air. This is shortly after the breeding season. 
They show no fear of man and can often be seen in suburban flower-gardens.” 
It is curious to record that among the Watling drawings is a painting 
of this bird, No. 103, to which Watling has appended a note : “ This bird 
lives on flies and honey; when flying it makes a singular noise as if the tips 
of the wings were beat together under the bird’s belly. It hovers over flowers 
and extracts honey with its brush tongue.” This note was apparently not 
seen by Latham as he did not reproduce it, so that it was not published until 
Sharpe examined the Watling drawings. 
So little has been written about this well-known bird that Mattingley’s 
beautiful little word-picture may be quoted in full: “ One of the most 
beautiful-liveried of our southern Honey-eaters, the Spinebill has been aptly 
named on account of its spine-like beak, which is eminently adapted to sip 
the deep-seated nectar situate in long, cylindrical, bell-like flov r ers and 
pendulous blossoms, because of its long, slender, and somewhat recurvent 
structure. It is indeed a fascinating sight to observe a pair of Spinebills 
fluttering and hovering in front of a bunch of wild flowers which are to 
be found growing on a shrub. It is truly marvellous how the bird can drink 
in the honeyed contents with the aid of its brush-like tongue while suspended 
in mid-air in this manner, uttering meanwhile its shrill but musical note. 
It is thus able, whilst on flight, to obtain the delectable contents of those 
flowers that are otherwise inaccessible to it, especially those that would break 
off owing to their fragility if alighted on by the bird when searching for food. 
These dainty birds exhibit little fear, as a rnle, w T hen approached, and one 
can readily observe their handsome plumage wliilst they are ravishing the 
flowers for them sw r eet contents, and at the same time fertilizing them by 
unconsciously carrying the pollen from one flower to another.” 
Le Souef and Macpherson, writing of the birds of Sydney w T here this bird 
was first described 120 years before, noted : “ This active bird is a resident, 
numerous in our gardens, but more especially those in the vicinity of the 
parks. It is often seen flitting about the flower-beds, taking nectar from the 
flowers and chasing insects. The wings move very rapidly in flight, and make 
a ‘Thirup’ sound.” 
343 
