94 



BIRDS OF KAUAI ISLAND, HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



Measurements. 



Himatione parva, .sp. u. 



Kamao. 



Diagnosis. — Tail-feathers much more thau three times the length of 

 the exposed cnlmeii, the latter shorter than middle toe with claw ; gouys 

 nearly straight ; above bright yellowish olive-green, underneath bright 

 olive yellow, except middle of abdomen which is white; under tail- 

 coverts yellow. 



Dimensions (average). — Wing, SO™'" ; tail-feathers, i2™'" ; exposed 

 culmen, 12™'"; tarsus, 19™™; middle toe with claw, 14™™; hind toe 

 without claw, 8™™. 



Habitat. — Kauai, Hawaiian Islands. 



Type.—U. S. :N^at. Mus. No. 110051. Y. Knudsen. coll. 



In general proportions the present species, which is the smallest of 

 the slender-billed Hawaiian Dicceidcc, agrees very well with Himatione 

 sanguinea, except in its proportionately somewhat shorter bill, and can- 

 not be separated from it generically, although in shape and size of bill 

 somewhat intermediate between the latter species and Loxops. It is of 

 about the same size as L. coccinea, consequentlj^ much smaller than H. 

 sanguinea, and easily separable from both by its coloration, except per- 

 haps from the female Loxops coccinea, which, according to v. Pelzelii 

 (Journ. f. Orn., 1872, p. 29), is green above and yellow below. The bare 

 nasal fossse and longer bill of H. parva will prevent its being confounded 

 with Loxops, however. In regard to color it approaches more closely 

 Himatione chloris, but H. parva is brighter yellow both above and below, 

 and has the under tail-coverts yellow, strongly contrasting with the 

 white of the abdomen, while in H. chloris they are whitish washed with 

 dull buft. They are ver3' easily told apart by the quite different dimen- 

 sions and proportions, H. chloris being much larger, with a much longer 

 and more curved bill and a proportionately much shorter tail than H. 

 parva. 



From H. virens (Gm.) (which I take to be the same as Sharpe's and 

 Sclater's bird of the same name, and also the same as Bloxham's H.flava, 

 Mr. Sharpe having the types of the latter in the British Museum) our 

 H. parva may be distinguished principally by its smaller size, and espe- 

 cially by its much shorter bill. 



H. maculata Cabanis, which is evidently quite distinct from both H. 

 virens and H. chloris, is at once excluded from comparison with H. parva 

 on account of the dimensions, and especially as having an entirely dif- 

 ferent wing-formula. 



