. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATURAL UISTORY. kind of food, and the peculiar insects wi diminutive stomaclis are especially formed for tli: stitute a portion of it \ " THE WARTY-FACED HOXEY-EATER LVelipImya phrygia). Mr. Gould gives the following account of this species :—'' This is not only one of the handsomest of the Honey-eaters, but is also one of the most beautiful birds inhabiting Australia, the strongly-con- trasted tints of the black and yellow plumage rendering it a most consj)icuoxis and pleasing object, particularly during flight. It is a stationary s
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATURAL UISTORY. kind of food, and the peculiar insects wi diminutive stomaclis are especially formed for tli: stitute a portion of it \ " THE WARTY-FACED HOXEY-EATER LVelipImya phrygia). Mr. Gould gives the following account of this species :—'' This is not only one of the handsomest of the Honey-eaters, but is also one of the most beautiful birds inhabiting Australia, the strongly-con- trasted tints of the black and yellow plumage rendering it a most consj)icuoxis and pleasing object, particularly during flight. It is a stationary species, and enjoys a range extending from South Australia to New South Wales; I also met with it in the interior nearly as far north as the latitude of Moreton Bay. Although it is very generally distributed, its presence appeai-s to be dependent upon the state of the Eucalypti, upon whose blossoms it mainly depends for subsistence ; it is consequently only to be found in any particular locality during the season that these trees are in bios som. It generally resorts to the loftiest and most fully-flowered tree, where it frequently reigns supreme, buffeting and driving every other bird away from its immediate neigh- bourhood. It is, in fact, the most pugnacious bird I ever saw, evincing particular hostility to the smaller Meliphagicke, and even to others of its own species that may venture to approach the trees upon which two or tlu'ee have taken their station. While at Adelaide, in South Australia, I observed two pairs that had possessed themselves of one of the high trees that had been left standing in the middle of the city, which tree, dui-ing the whole period of my stay, they kept sole possession of, sallying forth and beating off every bird that came near. I met with it in great abundance among the bnishes of New South Wales, and also found it breeding among the low apple-tree flats of the Upper Hunter. I have occasionally seen flocks of from fifty to a hundred in number
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