178 Mr. Scott Wilson on some 



dents in the islands. It is doubtful whether in ancient days 

 it was from the yellow feathers that grow beneath its wings, 

 or from the still more beautiful yellow feathers of the now 

 extinct Drepanis pacifica, next to be mentioned, that the 

 state robes of kings and chiefs were wrought. It was the 

 privilege of those classes alone to wear them ; and it cannot 

 be denied that they formed a becoming apparel, as mag- 

 nificent and beautiful as anything that the triumphs of 

 civilized art can now produce. The fine statue of King 

 Kamehameha I., which stands in front of the Government 

 House in Honolulu, represents the great conqueror who 

 first consolidated the sovereignty of the various islands, 

 draped in his Mamo — as this feathered cloak is called in the 

 Hawaiian language — and its texture is wonderfully repre- 

 sented by the sculptor's art. Looking upon it, and remem- 

 bering that the kings and chiefs of Hawaii-nei were a race 

 of giants, most of them being over six feet in height, we 

 can well understand what an imposing effect must have been 

 produced by one of them thus clad. The fabrication of the 

 great yellow war-cloak of Kamehameha I. had been going 

 on through the reign of eight preceding monarchs. The 

 ground-work is of coarse netting, to which are attached, 

 with skill, now impossible to be applied, the delicate feathers, 

 those on the border being reverted. Its length is four feet, 



by Lesson (Tr. d'Orn. p. 302) in 1831, as has been commonly supposed ; 

 and indeed, tbose who turn to Lesson's work will find that he simply 

 under this name indicates a group of the genus Philedon of Cuvier, and 

 abstains, both in this passage and in his later work of 1837 (Compl. Buffon, 

 Oiseaux, p. 149), from using Moho in a strictly generic sense. The amend- 

 ment of Moho into MoJwa, proposed in 1852 by Keichenbach (Handb. sp. 

 Ornithol. p. 333), brings the name dangerously near Mohoua of Lesson 

 (1837), which is as valid or invalid as his Moho. Furthermore it is certain 

 that Moho applied to this bird originated in an error, possibly a misprint for 

 " Hoho" — an old form of writing its native name — perpetrated by Ellis 

 (Narrat. Voy. Cook and Clerke, ii. p. 156) in 1782, unfortunately repeated 

 by Latham (Gen. Synops. Suppl. p. 120), and thence copied by Sonnim 

 (Hist. Nat. Buffon, xviii. p. 286) and others. " Moho " is the Hawaiian 

 name for Rallus ecaudatus, King, and applied to any other bird only 

 excites a smile. 



