Nectar-Sipping Birds

Abstract

THE device of Mirafra Assamica to reach the nectar in the flowers of Castanospermum (noted in NATURE of April 15, p. 489) has its parallel among British birds. The blooms of several Asiatic species of rhododendron contain much honey, and many of these are defaced at this season by the great tit (Parus major), the blue tit (P. cœruleus), and probably the coal tit (P. ater) pecking holes in the tube of the corolla and tearing away the upper petals to get at the nectary. In some gardens bumble-bees have learnt to make a similar short cut to the nectary of Salvia patens; the legitimate entrance, which is furnished with a neat mechanism to ensure cross fertilisation by humming-birds or long-tongued Lepidoptera, being too narrow to permit access for Bombus. Knowledge of the trick, however, is not universal among bumble-bees; for I have found that in some gardens the blossoms of this Salvia remain intact.