ZOSTEROPS

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 1044 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: YAK-ZYM

ZOSTEROPS ,1 originally the scientific name of a genus of birds founded by N. A. Vigors and T. Horsfield (Trans. Linn. Society, xv. p. 235) on an Australian species called by them Z. dorsalis, but subsequently shown to be identical with the Certhia caerulescens, and also with the Sylvia lateralis, previously described by J. Latham. The name has been Anglicized in the same sense, and, whether as a scientific or a vernacular term, applied to a

great

GREAT

number of species2 of little birds which inhabit for the most part the tropical districts of the Old World, from Africa to most of the islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and northwards in-

Asia

ASIA

through India and China to the Amur regions and Japan.
r The derivation is i"worltps-ilpos and whence the word should be pronounced with all the vowels long. The allusion is to the ring of white feathers round the eyes, which is very conspicuous in many species.
2 In 1883 R. B. Sharpe (Cat. B. Brit. Museum, ix. pp. 146203) admitted 85 species, besides 3 more which he had not been able to examine.
The birds of this group are mostly of unpretending

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

, the plumage above being generally either mouse-coloured or greenish olive; but some are varied by the white or

bright

BRIGHT, JOHN (1811-188g)
BRIGHT, SIR CHARLES TILSTON

yellow of their throat, breast or lower parts, and several have the flanks of a more or less lively bay. Several islands are inhabited by two perfectly distinct species, one belonging to the brown and the other to the green section, the former being wholly insular. The greater number of species seem to be confined to single islands, often of very small area, but others have a very wide distribution, and the type-species, Z. caerulescens, has largely extended its range. First described from New

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

Wales, where it is very plentiful, it had been long known to inhabit all the eastern part of Australia. In 1856 it was found in the

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

Island

ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

of New Zealand, when it became known to the Maories by a name signifying " Stranger," and to the British as the " Blight-bird,"3 from its clearing the fruit-trees of a blight. It soon after appeared in the North

Island

ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

, where it speedily became common, and thence not only spread to the Chatham Islands, but was met with in considerable numbers 300 miles from land, as though in search of new countries to colonize. In any case it is obvious that this Zosterops must be a comparatively modern settler in New Zealand.
All the species of Zosterops are sociable, consorting in large flocks, which only

separate

SEPARATE

on the approach of the pairing season. They build nestssometimes suspended from a

horizontal

HORIZONTAL

fork and sometimes fixed in an upright crctchand lay (so far as is known)

pale

PALE (through Fr. pal, from Lat. palms, a stake, for paglus, from the stem pag- of pangere, to fix; " pole " is from the same original source)

blue, spotless eggs, thereby differing wholly from several of the groups of birds to which they have been thought allied. Though mainly insectivorous, they eat fruits of various kinds. The habits of Z. caerulescens have been well described by Sir W. Buller (Birds of New Zealand), and those of a species peculiar to Ceylon, Z. ceylonensis, by Col.

Legge

LEGGE
LEGGE, JAMES (1815-1897)

(B. Ceylon), while those of the widely ranging Indian Z. palpebrosa and of the South-African Z. capensis have been succinctly treated by Jerdon (B. India, ii.) and Layard (B. South Africa) respectively.
It is remarkable that the largest known species of the genus, Z. albigularis, measuring nearly 6 in. in length, is confined to so small a spot as Norfolk Island, where also another, Z. tenuirostris, not much less in size, occurs; while a third, of intermediate stature, Z. slrenua, inhabits the still smaller Lord Howe's Island. A fourth, Z. vatensis, but little inferior in bulk, is found on one of the New Hebrides; the rest are from one-fifth to one-third less in length, and some of the smaller species hardly exceed 31 in.
Placed by some writers, if not systematists, with the Paridae (see TITMOUSE), by others among the Meliphagidae (see HONEY-EATER), and again by others with the Nectariniidae (see SUNBIRD), the structure of the tongue, as shown by H. F. Gadow (Prot. Zool. Society, 1883, pp. 63, 68, pl. xvi. fig. 2), entirely removes it from the first and third, and from most of the forms generally included among the second. It seems safest to regard the genus, at least provisionally, as the type of a distinct familyZosteropidaeas families go among Passerine birds. (A. N.)

End of Article: ZOSTEROPS

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/YAK_ZYM/ZOSTEROPS.html">
ZOSTEROPS
</a>

(Previous)
ZOSIMUS

(Next)
ZOUAVE

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email