Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/83

70 berries. They are usually of sombre colours, black, or olive-brown, without any metallic lustre. They are said to construct cup-shaped nests, in the forks of small branches of shrubs, not far removed from the ground. They are of a larger size than most of the members of this Tribe; several species equal a thrush in dimensions, and some are considerably larger.

Of the typical genus of Honey-eaters the characters are as follow:—The beak is moderate or comparatively short, and feeble; the under mandible is not thickened. The inner toe is shorter than the outer one. The tail is rounded or graduated. The tongue is cleft into two divisions, and each part terminates in a bundle of filaments. This organ, though still essentially constructed upon the type of that which we have described in the Sun-birds and Humming-birds, is of a form almost peculiar to the present group. It is not nearly so extensile as in the Humming-birds, being seldom more than half as long again as the beak, nor are the branches of the tongue-bone (os hyoïdes) carried beneath and behind the skull, as in those birds. It seems to be constructed rather for licking up honey, pollen, &c., with its brush-like tips, than for sucking. Lewin, who, in his " Birds of New Holland," drew and described these species in their native regions, has figured the tongue of the Warty-faced Honey-sucker, (Meliphaga phrygia, .), and describes the bird as sometimes to be seen in great numbers, constantly flying from tree to tree, particularly