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PERCHING BIRDS. 
Taking as an example the green-backed white-eye {Z. gouldi) of Australia, 
we find this bird is well known to settlers as being exceedingly partial 
to garden-fruit. Being particularly fond of figs and grapes, it consequently 
abounds in all the gardens where those plants are cultivated, and it is as often to 
be seen and as numerous as sparrows in England; besides feeding upon fruits, it 
catches flies while on the wing, after the manner of the true flycatchers. Its note 
is a single plaintive one, several times repeated; and its flight is irregular and of 
short duration. The breeding-season commences in August and ends in November ; 
the nests during the earlier part of the season invariably contain two eggs, but 
in those found in October and November the number is increased to three, and 
rarely to four. The nest is small, compact, and formed of dried wiry grasses, 
bound together with the hairy tendrils of small plants and wool, the inside being 
lined with very minute fibrous roots. The eggs are greenish blue, without spots 
or markings. In South Australia the white-eye just described is replaced by a 
grey-backed species which frequents gardens, building its nest and rearing its 
young in shrubs and rose-trees bordering the walks. This species make a very 
neat nest, and its eggs are of a beautiful pale blue. The green-backed white-eye 
has the crown and upper-parts olive-green; the wings and tail are brown edged 
with olive-green; the throat and under tail-coverts light greenish yellow; and the 
breast and under-parts grey, tinged with brown. 
The Sun-Birds. 
Family N EOT A riniidn. 
The sun-birds are a tropical family corresponding in the Old World to the 
humming-birds of the New. They are characterised by the long, slender, curved 
bill, with the sides compressed almost to the tip, which is acute, and in which both 
mandibles are finely serrated for the terminal third of their edges. The wings are 
of moderate size, and have ten primaries, the tail being more or less elongated, 
with the middle feathers sometimes prolonged beyond the rest. The metatarsus 
is usually short, and the toes are of moderate size, the claws being curved and 
sharp. The sexes are very different; the males having bright metallic tints in the 
plumage, while the females are dull in colour Most numerously represented in 
the African continent, the sun birds are fairly plentiful in the Indian region, and 
likewise occur in Australasia. 
Typical The birds of the genus Nectarinia have the bill long, curved, 
Sun-Birds, and acute, while the wings are moderate and rounded, the tail broad 
and slightly rounded, with the central feathers lengthened and narrowed, the 
metatarsus short, and covered in front with very broad scales. The majority of 
these sun-birds are found in Africa, but the Australian sun-bird represents the 
genus in Australasia. 
Malachite One of the best known of the South African sun-birds is the 
Sun-Bird. malachite sun-bird {N. famosa). According to Captain Shelley, 
this species is partial to the blossoms of the aloe, among which it finds an 
abundance of its insect food ; but it feeds also upon saccharine juice, extracted from 
