in the extreme south-west corner of the United States, in a narrow strip of country known as the "bee-belt" of California, which enjoys the soft and equable climate of the Pacific coast. Timber in this region is confined to the bottoms near running streams, and to the canons, the valleys and hill-sides being covered with stunted brushwood and an abundant growth of white sage, an herb similar to the garden sage, and not to be confounded with the sagebrush of Nevada and Utah, which is a species of wormwood, sumach, and other flowering plants. These bloom nine months in the year, but are most luxuriant in May and June. The white sage affords a honey comparable to that obtained from the bass- wood of the eastern States. The California!! honey, owing to the innocuous nature of the flowers from which it is procured, is devoid of the colic-producing properties ascribed to some other varieties of honey. Mr Harbison employs fifteen men in his apiaries, and is reaping rich profits from very many thousands of acres useless for ordinary purposes. Active operations begin in February, and in March or April the bees swarm. The taking of the honey commences usually about May 20th. From the early part of August till as late as October the flowers provide no more honey than is just sufficient for the subsistence of the bees. When October has begun, though the air is still mild, the hues cease to work, becoming semi-dormant, except for an hour or two every eight or ten days, when they fly near their hives in the sunshine. The fact that honey until the middle of the 16th century was the only sweet in general use, and that the aggregate annual consumption of sugar is now from 2 to 2.V millions of tons, points to the conclusion that apiculture, if skilfully and extensively conducted, might ere long become pro ductive of results of very high importance to commerce. For further information regarding American honey-farming see The American Bee Journal, The Bee-Keepers Exchange, Gleanings in Bee Culture, and The Bee-Keepers Magazine.
HONEY-EATER, or Honey-sucker, names applied by many writers in a very loose way to a large number of birds, some of which, perhaps, have no intimate affinity ; but here to be used, as before in this work (Birds, vol. iii. p. 739), in a more restricted sense for what, in the opinion of a good many recent authorities,[1] should really be deemed the Family Melipkagidoe excluding therefrom the Necta- riniidcc or Sun-birds (which see) as well as the genera Promerops and Zostcrops with whatever allies they may possess. Even with this restriction, the extent of the Family must be regarded as very indefinite, owing to the absence of materials sufficient for arriving at a satisfactory conclusion, though the existence of such a Family is pro bably indisputable. Making allowance then for the imper fect light in which they must at present be viewed, what are here called Meliphagid Oe include some of the most char acteristic forms of the ornithology of the great Australian Region members of the Family inhabiting almost every part of it, and a single species only, Ptilotis limbata, being said to occur outside its limits. They all possess, or are supposed to possess, a long protrusible tongue with a brush- like tip, differing, it is believed, in structure from that found in any other bird, Promerops perhaps excepted, and capable of being formed into a suctorial tube, by means of which honey is absorbed from the nectary of flowers, though it would seem that insects attracted by the honey furnish the chief nourishment of many species, while others undoubtedly feed to a greater or less extent on fruits. The Meliphagidc/e, as now considered, are for the most part small birds, never exceeding the size of a Mistletoe Thrush ; and they have been divided into more than 20 genera, con taining above 200 species, of which only a few can here be particularized. Most of these species have a very con fined range, being found perhaps only on a single island or group of islands in the Region, but there are a few which are more widely distributed such as GlycypTiila ruf/frons, the White-throated[2] Honey-eater, found over the greater part of Australia and Tasmania. In plumage they vary much. Most of the species of Ptilotis are characterized by a tuft of white, or in others of yellow, feathers springing from behind the ear. In the greater number of the genus Myzomela[3] the males are recognizable by a gorgeous display of crimson or scarlet, which has caused one species, M. sanguinolenta, to be known as the Soldier-bird to Australian colonists ; but in others no brilliant colour appears, and those of several genera have no special ornamentation, while some have a particularly plain appearance. One of the most curious forms is Prosthemadera the Tui or Parson-bird of New Zealand, so called from the two tufts of white feathers which hang beneath its chin in great contrast to its dark silky plumage, and suggest a likeness to the bauds worn by ministers of several religious denomi nations when officiating.[4] The Bell-bird of the same island, Author nis melanura whose melody excited the admiration of Cook the morning after he had anchored in Queen Charlotte s Sound is another member of this Family, and unfortunately seems to be fast becoming extinct. But it would be impossible here to enter much further into detail, though the Wattle-birds, Anthochcera, of Australia have at least to be named. Mention, however, must be made of the Friar-birds, Tropidorhynclms, of which nearly a score of species, five of them belonging to Australia, have been described. With their stout bills, mostly surmounted by an excrescence, they seem to be the most abnormal forms of the Family, and most of them are besides remarkable for the baldness of some part at least of their head. They assemble in troops, sitting on dead trees, with a loud call, and are very pugnacious, frequently driving away Hawks and Crows. Mr Wallace (Malay Archipelago, ii. pp. 150- 153) discovered the curious fact that two species of this genus, P. bourensis and P. subcornutus, respectively in habiting the islands of Bouru and Ceram, were the object of natural " mimicry " on the part of two species of Oriole of the genus Mimeta, M. bourouensis and M. forsteni, inhabiting the same islands, so as to be on a superficial examination identical in appearance, the Honey-eater and the Oriole -of each island presenting exactly the same tints, the black patch of bare skin round the eyes of the former, for instance, being copied in the latter by a patch of black feathers and even the protuberance on the beak of the Tropidorhynehus being imitated by a similar enlargement of the beak of the Mimeta. The very reasonable explana tion which Mr Wallace offers is that the pugnacity of the former has led the smaller Bircls-of-prey to respect it, and it is therefore an advantage for the latter, being weaker and less courageous, to be mistaken for it.
(a. n.)
- ↑ Among them especially Mr Wallace, Geogr. Di>str. Animals, ii.p. 275.
- ↑ It may be remarked that the young of this species has the throat yellow.
- ↑ Mr W. A. Forbes has published a careful monograph of this genus in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1 879, pp. 256-279.
- ↑ This bird, according to Mr Buller (Birds of New Zealand, p. 88), while uttering its wild notes, indulges in much gesticulation, which adds to the suggested resemblance. It has great power of mimicry, and is a favourite cage-bird both with the natives and colonists. On one occasion, says this gentleman, he had addressed a large meeting of Maories on a matter of considerable political importance, when "immediately on the conclusion of my speech, and before the old chief to whom my arguments were chiefly addressed had time to reply, a Tui, whose netted cage hung to a rafter overhead, responded in a clear emphatic way, Tito ! (false). The circumstance naturally caused much merriment among my audience, and quite upset the gravity of the venerable old chief Nepia Taratoa. Friend, said he, laughing, your arguments are very good; but my mokai is a very wise bird, and he is not yet convinced ! "
- ↑ This is also a well-known habit with some Corvidcc the Jays and Pies for example.
