9 go Fisher, Birds of Layscui Island. foct' 



millers left unpleasant memories, and likewise the imprint of their 

 fuzz on many of my negatives. 



The nest, like that of Tekspiza, is built in grass tussocks, about 

 two feet from the ground. The structure is loosely made, of fine 

 grass and rootlets, and the dainty bowl is lined with rootlets and 

 brown down from young Albatrosses (^Diomedea immniabilis). 

 There are no large white feathers in the lining, at once making 

 the nest distinguishable from that of Acrocephabcs familiaris, 

 which builds in neighboring tussocks. The complete set seems 

 to be four. The ovate egg is pure lustreless white, blotched and 

 spotted at the large end with grayish vinaceous, and with fewer 

 light and dark spots of Trout's brown. A typical specimen meas- 

 ures 1 8 by 13.75 niillimeters. 



Hiniatione freeihi is closely related to the Apapane {H. san- 

 guiiied) of the larger Hawaiian Islands. The derivation of the 

 two Laysan Drepanididas is therefore rather plain, for although 

 Telespiza is a monotypic genus, it belongs with the large-billed 

 genera Chloridops, Rhodacanthis, and Loxioides .oi Hawaii, Pseudo- 

 nestor of Maui, and Psittacirostra of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, 

 and Hawaii. 



Miller Bird. Acrocephalus familiaris {Rothsihild). 



The sociable little Miller Bird is one of the Reed Warblers 

 belonging to the Sylviidae, a characteristic Old World group, 

 although a certain American genus, Polioptila, is also included in 

 the family. It is curious that nowhere else in the whole Hawa- 

 iian group does any species of Acrocephalus occur. The genus is 

 a wide ranging one, extending over the whole of the central and 

 southern Palsearctic Region, having also representatives in Aus- 

 tralia and South Africa, while one division of the group is 

 exclusively Polynesian. Many of the species are highly migra- 

 tory, and winter in the tropical regions of Asia and Africa, and in 

 the islands of the Malay Archipelago. But the subgenus Tar fare, 

 or genus as some consider it, to which the Laysan bird belongs, is 

 a distinctly Polynesian group. It is distributed over the islands 

 between 30° north latitude and 30° south, and between longitude 



