bird</i>
(q.v.), etc. From the Greek <i>zowstaer</i>, a girdle,
`anything that goes round like a girdle' (`L. & S.'), and
<i>'owps</i>, the eye; the birds of the genus have a white
circle round their eyes. The bird was not generally known in
New Zealand until after <i>Black Thursday</i> (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
<i>Zosterops</i> 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' (<i>Tau-hou</i>).
Nevertheless, Buller thinks that the species
<i>Z. caerulescens</i> is indigenous in New Zealand.

(See under <i>Silver-eye</i>, quotation 1888.)
The species are--

<i>Zosterops caerulescens</i>, Lath.

Green-backed Z.--
<i>Z. gouldi</i>, Bp.; called also <i>Grape-eater</i>,
and <i>Fig-eater</i> (q.v.).

Gulliver's Z.--
<i>Z. gulliveri</i>, Castln. and Ramsay.

Pale-bellied Z.--
<i>Z. albiventer</i>, Homb. and Jacq.

Yellow Z.--
<i>Z. lutea</i>, Gould.

Yellow-rumped Z.--
<i>Z. westernensis</i>, Quoy and Gaim.

Yellow-throated Z.--
<i>Z. flavogularis</i>, 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 Tawny
Honeyeater] as well as against some of its near relatives,
particularly those that inhabit Western Australia, namely, the
long-billed, the spine-billed, and the little white-eye or
zosterops. During certain seasons they regale themselves too
freely with the seductive nectar of the flaming bottle-brush
(<i>Callistemon</i>). They become tipsy, and are easily caught
by hand under the bushes.In the annals of ornithology I know of
no other instance of birds getting intoxicated."

Edward E. Morris

Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and
Usages

End of Project Gutenberg's A Dictionary of Austral English, by Edward Morris

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