THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



VOL. XIX. July, 1902. No. 



,-) 



THE ELEPAIO OF HAWAH. 



BY H. W. HENSHAW. 



The Elepaio, as the natives call the several members of the 

 aenus Chasiempis, is one of the most beautiful, as it is one of the 

 most interesting, of all Hawaiian birds. Clad in modest but 

 pleasing colors, confiding to a degree, graceful in motion and 

 interesting in habits, it is the best known, as it is one of the most 

 abundant, of the Island species. 



In the three islands the bird inhabits, it is widely dift'used, 

 frequenting the forest almost down to the sea, where the forest 

 reaches so far, and yet ranging far upwards towards the timber 

 limit. The Elepaio does not migrate from place to place m search 

 of food, but inhabits the same locality year in and year out, being 

 apparently the last bird to forsake a tract of forest when, as often 

 happens, encroachments of any kind have caused its abandonment 

 by other and more sensitive species. Thus sedentary, the bird is 

 more continuously subject to environmental influences than some 

 other Hawaiian birds which move about more or less in search of 

 food, and hence might be expected to differentiate into varietal 

 forms This, as we shall see later, is the case. 



The insular distribution of the Elepaio is peculiar. Few if any 

 of the endemic species would seem to be so well adapted to wide 

 dispersal in the group as this little flycatcher. Its habits are a 

 combination of the wren and flycatcher, the former decidedly pre- 

 dominating. The Elepaio would thus seem to be quite capable of 



