zosterops

n.

the scientific name of a genusof Australian birds, often called also popularly by that name,and by the names of Wax-eye, White-eye, Silver-eye (q.v.), Ring-eye, Blight-bird (q.v.), etc. From the Greek zowstaer, a girdle,`anything that goes round like a girdle' (`L. & S.'), and 'owps, the eye; the birds of the genus have a whitecircle round their eyes. The bird was not generally known inNew Zealand until after Black Thursday (q.v.), in 1851,when it flew to the Chatham Islands. Some observers, however,noted small numbers of one species in Milford Sound in 1832.New Zealand birds are rarely gregarious, but the Zosterops made a great migration, in large flocks,from the South Island to the North Island in 1856,and the Maori name for the bird is `The Stranger' ( Tau-hou).Nevertheless, Buller thinks that the species Z. caerulescens is indigenous in New Zealand.

(See under silver-eye, quotation 1888.)

The species are – –

Zosterops caerulescens, Lath.

♣ Green-backed Z. – – Z. gouldi, Bp.; called also Grape-eater,and Fig-eater (q.v.).

♣ Gulliver's Z. – – Z. gulliveri, Castln. and Ramsay.

♣ Pale-bellied Z. – – Z. albiventer, Homb. and Jacq.

♣ Yellow Z. – – Z. lutea, Gould.

♣ Yellow-rumped Z. – – Z. westernensis, Quoy and Gaim.

♣ Yellow-throated Z. – – Z. flavogularis, Masters.

1897. A. J. Campbell (in `The Australasian,' Jan. 23), p. 180,col. 3:

«I have a serious charge to prefer against this bird [the TawnyHoneyeater] as well as against some of its near relatives,particularly those that inhabit Western Australia, namely, thelong-billed, the spine-billed, and the little white-eye orzosterops. During certain seasons they regale themselves toofreely with the seductive nectar of the flaming bottle-brush( Callistemon). They become tipsy, and are easily caughtby hand under the bushes.In the annals of ornithology I know ofno other instance of birds getting intoxicated.»