Known also as the Ox-eye; it is very pugnacious in captivity, killing birds even as large as itself.
The numbers of British gold-crests are vastly increased by the arrival on the eastern coast of gold-crests from the Continent. "In autumn," writes Mr. Howard Saunders, "immense flocks sometimes arrive on our east coast, extending quite across England and the Irish Channel, and into Ireland. In 1882 the migration wave of this description, commencing on August 6 and lasting for ninety-two days, reached from the Channel to the Færoes; in 1883 the migration lasted eighty-two days; and again in 1884 for a period of eighty-seven days.... On such occasions bushes in gardens on the coast are covered with birds as with a swarm of bees; crowds flutter round the lanterns of lighthouses, and the rigging of fishing-smacks in the North Sea is thronged with weary travellers. In April a return migration occurs."
We pass now to the consideration of a few families of birds unknown in Britain, but interesting on account of the fact that they afford us another set of instances of adaptation to attain particular ends, so frequently to be met with in Nature. All the birds in question, though probably not related, have peculiarly modified tongues, apparently specially designed to aid in sucking up honey from flowers.
The first group for consideration are the Honey-eaters of New Zealand and Australia. So great is the transformation which the tongue in these birds has undergone, that it forms one of the most elaborate organs of its kind, surpassing even that of the Humming-birds. A description of this organ without the aid of anatomical terms and diagrams would be useless. Suffice it to say it is long, capable of being thrust out of the mouth, and brush-like. It is used to thrust up the tubes of honey-bearing flowers, as well for the sake of the juice as for the insects gathered in such situations to feed on it.
Photo by C. Reid] [Wishhaw, N.B.
COAL-TITS.
These birds show the white patch on the nape very distinctly. It is a common British bird, staying with us the whole year round.
The best known of the Honey-eaters is the Poe, or Parsonbird, of New Zealand. Glossy black in colour, with vivid green and blue reflections, it is rendered still more attractive by a pair of white tufts of feathers hanging from the front upper part of the neck, whilst on the back of the neck in the same region the feathers are of a loose structure, long, and curled forwards. Other honey-eaters are the White-eyes, Sun-birds, and Flower-peckers.
The White-eyes, so called from a ring of white feathers around the eye, have a wide distribution, being found in Australia, India, Africa, Madagascar, and Japan. Besides honey they are very partial to fruit, particularly figs and grapes, and also capture insects on the wing, after the fashion of fly-catchers.