The AUSTRALIAN BLOSSOM RIFLER (_Cyrtostomus Australis_) is olive-green
on the back, and of a beautiful bright yellow on the under side; the
throat and upper breast are steel-blue. A short yellow streak passes
over the eyes, and beneath this runs a long line of deeper shade; the
eye is chestnut-brown, and the beak and feet black. The female is of an
uniform yellow on the under side. According to Gould, the body of this
species measures four inches and three-quarters, the wing two inches and
one-eighth, and the tail two inches and a half.
"This pretty bird," says Macgillivray, as quoted by Gould, "appears to
be distributed along the whole coast of Australia, the adjacent islands,
and the whole of the islands in Jones's Straits. Although thus generally
distributed, it is nowhere numerous, seldom more than a pair being seen
together. Its habits resemble those of the _Ptilotes_, with which it
often associates, but still more closely those of the _Myzomela azura;_
like those birds, it resorts to the flowering trees, to feed upon the
insects which frequent the blossoms, especially those of a species of
_Sciodophyllum_. This singular tree, whose range on the north-eastern
coast and that of the Australian Sun Bird appears to be the same, is
furnished with enormous spike-like racemes of small scarlet flowers,
which attract numbers of insects, and thus furnish an abundant supply of
appropriate food. The Blossom Rifler is of a pugnacious disposition, as I
have more than once seen; it drives away and pursues any visitor to the
same tree. Perhaps this disposition is only exhibited during the breeding
season. The nests we found at Cape York were pensile, and attached to the
twig of a prickly bush; one, measuring seven inches in length, was of an
elongated shape, with a rather large opening on one side, close to the
top; it was composed of shreds of Melaleuca bark, a few leaves, various
fibrous substances, rejectamenta of caterpillars, &c., and lined with the
silky cotton of the _Bombyx Australis_. The eggs were pear-shaped, mottled
with dirty brown, on a greenish grey ground. Another nest, found at Mount
Ernest, Jones's Straits, differs from those seen in Cape York, in having
over the entrance a projecting fringe-like hood, composed of the panicles
of a delicate grass-like plant. It contained two young birds, and I saw
the mother visit them twice in an interval of ten minutes. She glanced
past like an arrow, perched at once on the nest, clinging to the lower
side of the entrance, and looked round very watchfully for a few seconds
before feeding the young, after which she disappeared as suddenly as she
arrived."
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The SPIDER-EATERS (_Arachnothera_) are short, compactly-built birds, with
extraordinarily long and often strangely-formed beaks, which in most
species are very decidedly curved and delicately incised at the margins.
The nostrils are covered with a skin, and only open inferiorly, where
they terminate in a horizontal slit-shaped aperture. The thread-like
tongue, which is very long, and greatly resembles that of a butterfly,
consists of two fine tubes, which run side by side, and are closely
connected along their under surface; a longitudinal groove is interposed
between them above. The arrangement of the bones at the base of the
tongue, whereby the lingual apparatus is capable of considerable
protrusion, is very similar to that observable in the Woodpecker. The feet
are powerful, but of medium length, and the wings (in which the fourth
quill is the longest) are of moderate size. The sexes are very similar in
the coloration of their plumage, in which brownish green, and more or less
lively yellow, grey, or green, predominate.
The Spider-eaters usually frequent the most shady retreats in their
favourite woods, and but rarely ascend the branches to more than
fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. In the Sunda Islands they are
principally met with in the coffee plantations, the brushwood that
skirts the mountains, or in the thickets of trees and shrubs that
surround the villages. In all these situations they are numerous, and are
constantly to be seen as they flit from flower to flower in search of
the insects and honey upon which they subsist. Small spiders are said to
be eagerly devoured by all the members of this family, hence their name
of _Arachnothera_. The flight of the Spider-eaters, which is extremely
rapid, and in many respects like that of the Woodpecker, is observed by
the natives with a superstitious attention, fully equalling the reverence
paid by the Romans to the predictions drawn by their augurs from a similar
source.
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The HALF-BILLS (_Hemignathus_) are a group of Spider-eaters that are
easily recognisable by the strange formation of their beak; the upper
mandible terminates in a sharp point, and is always much longer than the
under portion of the bill, sometimes twice its length. The toes, also, are
comparatively long, and the foot short. The plumage is usually green upon
the back, and of a yellowish tint beneath. All the members of this group
inhabit Oceania.