. Birds of the plains . that lies hidden away at the baseof the petals of flowers is indeed an idyllic existence. The sunbird, as the honeysucker is frequently called,is provided with a curved beak and a long tubulartongue to enable it the better to rob cup-like blossomsof their honey. The bird must perforce be very smalland light, or it would find it impossible to reach thenectar of many flowers. As a matter of fact, it isalmost as light as air, so is able to support itself on oneflower when drinking honey from another. Sometimes,if no perch be available, the little honeysucker willhover in t
. Birds of the plains . that lies hidden away at the baseof the petals of flowers is indeed an idyllic existence. The sunbird, as the honeysucker is frequently called,is provided with a curved beak and a long tubulartongue to enable it the better to rob cup-like blossomsof their honey. The bird must perforce be very smalland light, or it would find it impossible to reach thenectar of many flowers. As a matter of fact, it isalmost as light as air, so is able to support itself on oneflower when drinking honey from another. Sometimes,if no perch be available, the little honeysucker willhover in the air on rapidly vibrating wings and thusextract the sweets from a flower. In this attitude itlooks very like a butterfly. I may here mention thatsunbirds do not live exclusively upon honey: theyvary this diet with minute insects which they pick offflowers and leaves. Honeysuckers are frequently called humming-birdsby Anglo-Indians. This is not correct. Humming-birds are confined to the New World, and are smaller78 i {. LOTEN S SUNBIRI). (AKACHNEC-(Xote the long curved bill. n,fa/>ieci to in OTEMA)r JJowers) HONEYSUCKERS 79 and more ethereal than our little honeysuckers, buttheir methods of feeding are so similar that the mistakeis a pardonable one. As every one knows, butterflies and bees, in returnfor the honey they receive, render service to the flowersby carrying the pollen from the stamen of one to thestigma of the other and thus bring about cross-fertilisa-tion, which most botanists believe to be essential to thewell-being of a species. Honeysuckers probably performa similar service, for, as they flit from flower to flower,their little heads may be seen to be well dusted withyellow pollen. Sunbirds are found all over India, but they are mostplentiful in the South, being essentially tropical birds ;they are merely summer visitors to the Punjab; whenthe short, cold winter days come, they leave thatprovince and betake themselves to some milder clime. Three species may be
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