44 Director's Annual Repo?-t. 



of whicli were covered with licliens. The nest wasbadly weather- 

 beaten, no repairs had been made since the kona storm. The tree 

 was growing down from the crest of the ridge some forty feet, and 

 was thus somewhat sheltered from the wind. Later, on the same 

 day, while watching a fly-catcher I saw it go to its nest in an 

 Ohia tree some fifteen feet up from the ground. I shot the bird 

 (Mus. No. 1651) which had its beak full of nest materials. I also 

 took the nest (Mus. No. 1669, Fig. i). It was weather-beaten, 

 and I believe undergoing repairs. This nest, similar to the last, 

 was placed in a vertical crotch at the top of the tree, and in 

 general it resembled the foregoing in size and strudlure, with the 

 exception that it was being lined with the black hair-like stems 

 of a small fern. 



Still another nest, taken on March 2, had been located while 

 it was building, over a month before. It was placed in a slanting 

 limb an inch in diameter, some twenty feet up in a tree which was 

 growing close down beside a little stream. Like all the nests 

 secured it was composed of leaf skeletons, moss and lichens firmly 

 bound together with spider webs, and in this instance was lined 

 with seed stems of the Pili grass. Over all it was 3.25 in. high 

 by 2.50 in. across. The bowl of the nest is 1.25 in. deep and 

 1.75 in. across the brim. When taken the nest contained one 

 fresh &gg^ which is ovate in form, measuring .80 X .60 in., with a 

 white or creamy white ground and faint lilac under spots, over 

 which are brown surface specks and spots distributed generally 

 over the shell, but are the most numerous at the larger end. I find 

 the measurements of C. gayi eggs given by Rothschild is in error 

 (1.25X1.11), being out of all proportion to the size of the bird. 

 He farther states that his specimen is "covered with small spots 

 and blotches of a brownish red (brick red)", so that in all prob- 

 ability the ^%^ thus described by him is that of some other species. 



The remaining nest, one taken on March 4, does not vary 

 either in size or material sufficienth' from those described above to 

 warrant a separate description. It was secured from a limb 

 eighteen feet from the ground. 



Acridotheres tristis (Linn.). 



Several Mina birds were secured. They are found quite com- 

 monly in flocks all through the mountains, and at this season of 



[236] 



