358 Mr. P. L. Sclater on the 



obtained (the single specimen hitherto known is in the collection 

 of the Philadelphian Academy of Natural Sciences) I think 

 we cannot venture to disagree with Mr. Cassin, who regards it 

 as an excellent species, peculiar to the Hawaiian fauna. But 

 the two Owls called by Mr. Dole Strix delicatula and Brachyotus 

 gal(q-)a(joensis are both widely distributed species. The latter is 

 said by Mr. Cassin to be " certainly identical with the Chilian 

 form " of this cosmopolitan bird, and, if such is the case, would 

 in my opinion be specifically inseparable from Otus brachyotus, 

 to which species I refer all the American Short-eared Owls that 

 have come under my examination. 



Strix delicatula is the ordinary Pacific form of S. flammea *. 

 We now come to the great land-order Insessores or Passeres, 

 by examination of which the peculiarities of any Avifauna are 

 usually best determined. Mr. Dole gives us a list of upwards 

 of 20 supposed Hawaiian species of this order, and refers these 

 to seven different families. Beginning with the " Meliphagidse,^' 

 he enumerates four species of Moho, or, as I should prefer to 

 call it more classically, Mohoa. Three of them are undoubtedly 

 good species of the genus, which is one of the most characte- 

 ristic forms of the Hawaiian Avifauna — namely, M. nobilis 

 (Merrem), M. braccata (Cassin), and M. apicalis, Gould. But 

 I am very doubtful whether the Entomyza angustipluma of 

 Cassin can be properly referred to this genus, and in my MS. 

 have proposed for it the new generic term Chcetoptila f. I have 

 examined the typical specimen of this bird, which was in Mr. 

 Cassin's hands when I was at Philadelphia in 1856. 



Another peculiar Hawaiian type is the genus Drepanis with 

 its curious hooked bill, which Mr, Dole refers to the " Prome- 

 ropidse,^^ and of which he mentions four species. Of these, 

 D. coccinea, D. pacifica, and D. sanguinea are undoubtedly 

 good, but the last mentioned is perhaps generically separable 

 under Cabanis^s term Himatione J. The so-called D. flava is 

 probably the female of Himatione sanguinea. Nearly allied to 

 Drepanis is the still more extraordinary type Hemignathus, with 



• Cf. Finscli. & llartl. Orn. Central-Polyn. p. 11. 



t x"'''"'?* coi'io, ; et nTikov,]jh(ma, 



X Mus. Hein. i. p. 99. 



