120 Mr. R. C. L. Perkins on 



are found in the upper forest, though stragglers may occur 

 at times at lower elevations. Their habits seem to me quite 

 identical; and going straight from the haunts of the one to 

 those of the other, I failed to detect any difference in their 

 songs. At the same time, besides the ordinary song (which 

 resembles that of H. ivUsoni, the Hawaii species, but is less 

 loud), the Maui bird has a second distinct one, much like that 

 of an introduced Carpodacus, which abounds in the same 

 locality and nests there. This is no doubt imitated, as some of 

 the native birds not infrequently sing like some other (native) 

 species, the song of which is quite unlike their own proper 

 one. Their call-note is a sharp "keewit^' once or twice re- 

 peated and louder than that of other birds in which it is very 

 similar. This the sexes are repeatedly uttering, pausing in 

 their feeding at short intervals for this purpose. Their food 

 consists mainly of various insects, which they procure much 

 in the same way as does H, ivilsoni, but they are altogether 

 quieter and less vigorous in their movements. In their 

 stomachs I usually found spiders, wood-feeding larvse of 

 Tinseidse and Geometridse, and wood-boring beetles, especially 

 the endemic brassy weevils of the genus Oodemas. Some- 

 times, too, they contained small pieces of lava, no doubt to 

 aid in breaking up the hard shells of the beetles mentioned. 

 That H. affinis also sucks honey I obtained decisive evidence, 

 though I never saw it myself ; probably all the species do so 

 at times except H. ivilsoni, which has become more entirely 

 specialized for a Woodpecker's mode of life. 



In life, apart from their very distinct song and call-notes, 

 these birds and the Hemignathi can readily be distinguished 

 from all the other native species by the extremely short 

 tail in proportion to their total length, — a distinction which 

 the eye can appreciate at distances at which neither the 

 form of the beak nor the colour of the plumage is any longer 

 to be made out. Moreover the Heterorhynchi differ in 

 another respect from all the other green birds, for the latter, 

 even in feeding on the limbs of trees, advance by more or less 

 distinct hops, whereas the former regularly creep over the 

 surface of the trunks and branches. 



