Vol. XXIII, pp 67-70 May 4, 1910 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



UNRECORDED SPECIMENS OF TWO RARE HAWAIIAN 



BIRDS. 



BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



Lately while arranging the skins of Acridocercus nobilis in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology I discovered among them a 

 fine example of the long ago extinct Acridocercus apicalis (Gould) 

 of Oahu Island. 



This specimen came to the museum in exchange from Brown 

 University and had formerly helonged to John Cassin. It bears 

 a label in Casshi's liand with the inscription, "Sandwich Isld. 

 J. K. Townsend male," and was without doubt collected by 

 Townsend during his visit to Oahu in 1835. The skin, No. 

 17,598, Museum of Comparative Zoology, is that of a fine adult 

 male and although made seventy-five years ago is in perfect 

 preservation, except tiiat its feet and legs have, at some time, 

 been somewhat eaten by insects. 



Wilson and Evans in their Aves Hawaiiensis, 1890-1899 

 (p. ' 103 " — the work is not paged) mention five specimens, 

 all that were known to them, of A. apicalis — three in the British 

 Museum, one of which went by exchange to Rothschild's Tring 

 Museum, and a pair collected by Deppe which are in Vienna. 



Rothschild, Extinct Birds 1907, p. 27, enumerates the same 

 five specimens, but says that Deppe's skins are in Berlin. 



Ours makes the sixth known example of A. apical i><, wliich 

 is believed to have been confined to Oahu and which has not 

 been seen alive by a naturalist since 1837. 



It is the only one in America, Dr. Chas. \V. Richmond in- 

 forming me that the United States National Museum docs not 

 possess any, and Mr. Witnicr Stone says that there is none in 



15— Pkoc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXIII, I'.tlo. (07) 



