AKT. 10 BIRDS OF PINCHOT EXPEDITION FISHER AND WETMORE 55 



was attractive, but to a possibly prejudiced mind did not seem equal 

 to that of our mocking birds, brown thrashers, or catbirds. 



These mockers feed ordinarily on fruit and berries and take the 

 juicy parts of cactus pads for drink. Whenever mocking birds or 

 finches see cactus pads being cut they immediately come to the spot 

 and eagerly eat the watery pulp as soon as it is placed within reach. 

 They also eat insects, especially grasshoppers, and we learned some- 

 thing of the food habits of the iguana when an individual rushed 

 and secured a grasshopper that a mocking bird had accidentally 

 dropped near it. Mockers always seemed ready to join in lunch, 

 but not always willing to accept what was given them. Once on 

 Chatham while the senior author was eating a guava and scattering 

 the pieces 6i skin on the ground, seven mockers came and joined in 

 the feast. On another occasion while he was eating lunch two 

 mockers and five lizards formed in a broken circle and ate with relish 

 bits of fruit jam thrown to them. 



Although members of a family seem to get along well together 

 the mocking bird is liable to be quarrelsome with outsiders and, if 

 possible, will prevent them from entering its domain. Families of 

 full-grown young, still with spotted breasts, were seen, but no fresh 

 nests or eggs were observed. 



CONOPODERAS MENDANAE MENDANAE (Tristram) 



Hivaoa warbler 



Acrocephalus mendanoe Tristram, Ibis, 1883, p. 43, pi. 1. (Marquesas 

 IslaiKls=Hivaoa or Tahuata Island.*") 



Two males taken at Hivaoa, September 12, 1929, have the follow- 

 ing measurements: Wing, 97.4, 96.8; tail, 85.8, 85.4; culmen from 

 base, 28.7, 30.6 ; tarsus, 32.3, 30.8 mm. 



Murphy *° has listed the Marquesan warblers as subspecies of 

 Conojjoderas caffra of the Society Islands, a treatment with which 

 the junior author does not agree. Though obviously of similar 

 stock, the IMarquesan forms all stand out as distinctly brighter yel- 

 low, maintaining this general appearance throughout their other 

 variations from type so that they are distinguished at a glance. 

 In view of this unity and of the separate groups of islands inhabited, 

 it seems best to consider the tw^o series of geographic races specifically 

 distinct. 



CONOPODERAS MENDANAE PERCERNIS Wetmore 

 Nukuliiva warbler 



Conopoderas percernis Wetmorej, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 63, August, 1919, 

 p. 213. (Nukuhiva Island, Marquesas Islands.) 



The two males and one female obtained were collected on Nuku- 

 hiva, September 25 and 26, 1929. They measure as follows: Males, 



*^ See Murphy, Amer. Mus. Nov., No. 337, Dec. 13, 1928, p. 12. 



