the Study of the Drepanididaa. 567 



or more. An examination of tlie Metrosideros tree will 

 shew that it is a species not peculiar to the islands, although, 

 as above remarked, it forms so large a part of the whole 

 forest. In its specific characters it is in a remarkably 

 unstable condition, exhibiting many striking variations, as 

 though it were now in process of being differentiated into 

 several species. Many of these variations are of constant 

 occurrence and widely spread; some are deemed worthy even 

 of specific rank. 



These facts appear to me to point to a comparatively 

 recent " immigration " of this tree, and I cannot suppose 

 that it has existed on the islands for the period of time which 

 would have been necessary to produce the exceptionally great 

 variety of structure exhibited by the Drepanididse. Turning to 

 other sources whence the food-supply may have been derived 

 at a period antecedent to the arrival and spread of the " Ohia- 

 lehua,'^ we find very different conditions. All *, or practi- 

 cally all, the plants visited by these birds for food had bell- 

 shaped or tubular blossoms, in which the nectar was more 

 or less hard to reach. Of these tubular-flowered plants there 

 are several predominant genera, some of which are themselves 

 restricted to the islands, and belong to various families, com- 

 prising hosts of peculiar species. Most striking of all are the 

 arborescent Lobeliacese, not closely related to forms found 

 in other countries. The multiplicity of these peculiar plants, 

 and their isolation from foreign forms, bears a striking re- 

 semblance to the state of affairs with regard to the Drepanine 

 birds themselves, indicating likewise an extremely ancient 

 occupation of the islands ; and as the latter are the glory of 

 the Hawaiian ornithologist, so are the former of the Hawaiian 

 botanist. To these flowers Drepanids of both sections are 

 still partial, and some particularly so, while the development 

 of their extreme forms is not comprehensible without a know- 

 ledge of Botany. That there has been in the past severe 



* We exclude from consideration the Evgenia, a local species, the 

 blooms of which are superficially like those of Metrosideros and are 

 attractive to birds ; it is known outside the islands, and was probably 

 introduced by the early native settlers. 



