190 Mr. Scott Wilson on some 



this, I imagine, is because its slender bill, of which the 

 maxilla does not very greatly exceed the mandible in length, 

 requires soft material to attack. 



It is more unobtrusive and quiet in its movements than 

 any other member of the genus which I saw, and its sombre 

 colour is so nearly that of the tree-trunks, that but for its 

 clear and characteristic call-note, I doubt whether I should 

 have obtained a single example. At Olaa in the district of 

 Puna, a place renowned in ancient times for its bird-catchers, 

 lived, when I was there, an old native, by name Hawelu, an 

 excellent observer and well skilled in the almost forgotten 

 art*, who told me that this was an extremely rare species. 



It was he who obtained the only specimens known to be in 

 existence of the " Moho/'' or short-winged Rail, of which one 

 was exhibited by Prof. Newton at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society in January, 1889 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1889, p. 5) f- 



10. Hemignathus lichtensteini. 



Hemignathus lichtensteini, Wilson, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 

 ser. 6, vol. iv. p. 401. 



H. obscurus, Lichtenstein, Abhandl. k. Akad. Berlin, 1838, 

 p. 449, t. v. fig. 1 [nee Gmelin). 



This species, mistaken by Lichtenstein for the last, was 

 obtained by Deppe in Oahu many years ago. I did not meet 

 with it in a brief expedition made in the remaining forests in 

 that island, and I believe that it must be nearly, if not quite, 

 extinct. I am only aware of the existence of a single speci- 

 men — the type, which Prof. Mobius most kindly gave me the 

 opportunity of comparing with the true H. obscurus. Un- 

 fortunately it seems to be a female. 



11. Hemignathus stejnegeri. (Plate VI. fig. 2.) 

 Hemignathus obscurus, Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 



1887, p. 93 {nee Gmelin, nee Licht.). 



* Poor Hawelu, since my return to England, has been removed to 

 Molokai as a leper. 



t This species received from Mr. Dole the name of Pennula millsi (see 

 Ibis, 1880, p. 241) ; but it is undoubtedly the " Rail with very short 

 wings and no tail " of Captain King (see the narrative of Cook's ' Third 

 Voyage,' vol. iii. p. 119), whose name for it, Rallus ecaudatus, applied in 

 1784, antedates even that of Gmelin. Cf. Newton, P. Z. S. 1889, p. 5. 



