the study of the 'DYe^2imQ.\di?&. 571 



thick-billed birds alike — yet at a very early period * of my 

 study of these birds I had excellent reasons apart from such 

 for my belief. Before the body of the first Pseudonestor 

 obtained by me was cold I was well aware that its tongue 

 was essentially Drepanine and little modified, and that it 

 indicated a positive connecting-link between the thick- and 

 thin-billed sections, being, in fact, more typically Drepanine 

 than that of the otherwise normal Oreomyza. The tongue 

 of Psittacirostra likewise was taken from the bird immedi- 

 ately it fell to show that it was truly Drepanine, although 

 much modified. In a hot country such parts should always 

 be preserved immediately, as after a day's collecting they 

 are liable to dry up and their appearance to become changed. 

 The characters afforded by the nostrils and their opercula in 

 all the important forms, as well as the pattern of colour, had 

 been under my consideration as early as 1894, and it is doubt- 

 ful whether any other important characters have been advanced 

 since that time. 



It is still my belief that the biological reasons on the 

 strength of which I first concluded that all these birds 

 belonged to one family are of the utmost importance, 

 chief amongst which is the peculiar odour to be noticed 

 in both groups, in the thin-billed and thick-billed forms 

 alike. So far as Hawaiian birds are concerned, this odour is 

 absohitely restricted to the Drepanines. Mr. Rothschild in 

 his work on Laysan makes the astonishing statement that 

 the Meliphagine Moho has a similar and even more powerful 

 odour; but this is only one of those errors which, for 

 want of due care, the museum naturalist is liable to make in 

 opposing facts ascertained and proven in the field. The 

 explanation is very simple : the Moho [Acrulocercus) freshly 



* It should be mentioned that a long time previously Dr. Sclater ((/. 

 Ibis, 1871, p. 559) had, after a careful study of various Hawaiian forms, 

 expressly declared his opinion that two of the Finch-billed genera 

 {Psittacirostra emi Loxioides) weie true Drepanines and related to Hetero- 

 rhynclms — an opinion without doubt correct, since Pseudonestor is the 

 connecting-link. It was not until long after I had come to the conclusion 

 that not only these but also the most thick-billed genera were decidedly 

 Drepanine, that Dr. Sclater's views became knowni to me. 



