184 Mr. Scott Wilson on some 



principal food is also honey, which it obtains from the 

 flowers of the ohia ; but I have no doubt it feeds also on 

 the small insects with which those flowers abound, and I 

 have often found insects in dissecting it. Although I did 

 not find a nest of the Apapane. I shot a female on May 24th, 

 1887, at Kaawaloa, in the district of Kona, in the ovary of 

 which was an egg almost ready for expulsion, a circumstance 

 which enables me to fix approximately its breeding-time, 

 which seems to be rather later than that of the Iiwi, for I 

 had shot several of the young of that species before this 

 date. I never, however, obtained specimens of the Apapane 

 so young as those of the Iiwi, although I have many imma- 

 ture examples in which not a trace of the crimson plumage 

 is to be seen. In this stage they differ so much from the 

 adult (as is also the case with Vestiaria) that it is not easy 

 at first to believe they are of the same species, and my 

 natives were quite sure I was wrong when 1 told them so. 

 The note of the Apapane is a feeble though clear tiveet, 

 tweet, but it also has a pretty simple song generally heard 

 soon after sunrise or towards sunset. In its flight the white 

 under tail-coverts are very conspicuous and serve to easily 

 determine this species on the wing. I am quite unable to 

 distinguish between specimens from the various islands. 



5. Himatione virens. " Amakihi " *. 



So far as I have observed, this little bird feeds almost 

 entirely on insects and finds its favourite hunting-grounds 

 on the oaka or bastard sandalwood (Myoporum santalinum), 

 the alii (Dodoncea viscosa), the opiku, the orange, the koa 

 (Acacia koa), and the mamane (Sophora chrysophylla) . It 

 also frequents the ohia, preferring its lower branches and 

 the stunted form of the mountain district. Very unobtru- 

 sive in its movements, this species may be seen among the 

 undergrowth of the forest diligently searching every limb 

 and the slenderest branches for its prey. At Mana (3500 

 feet) in January I found it in great numbers on the mamane 

 trees which abound in that district, and are at that season 



* The name applied to most of the yellow-green species of Himatione. 



