Finch from Midway Island, N. Pacific. 341 



cage apart, and has reduced one of the wooden uprights which 

 go to form the framework of the cage to half its original 

 thickness by continually chipping at it. I should have pro- 

 cured two more specimens which the Hon. C. R. Bishop 

 of Honolulu had promised me, but for their having severed 

 the wooden bars of their cage and thus effected their 

 escape — let us hope to become naturalized on the island of 

 Oahu. 



This bird has a very clear metallic note, which may be 

 expressed thus — chwit, chwee. It also twitters and chirps 

 as it hops from side to side of the cage, and is altogether 

 very lively in its movements. Since its sojourn in England 

 it has learnt several notes of the Common Sparrow, but 

 the note first mentioned is that which it most frequently 

 utters, and a very distinct and characteristic one it is. 



The Finch appears to belong to a new genus, allied to 

 Psittirostra of the Hawaiian group, from which it differs in 

 its thicker bill, the upper mandible being less produced, and 

 showing a slight tendency to cross the lower mandible, as in 

 Loxia. The feet are remarkably large and strong. The 

 wings are moderate, reaching to about the end of the basal 

 third of the tail-feathers. The tail is slightly forked. 



I propose to describe it as follows : — 



Telespyza cantans, gen. et sp. n. (Plate IX.) 

 Head and sides of face olive-green, shading behind into 

 dark chestnut-brown on the back, where each feather has 

 the centre black ; body beneath bright greenish yellow, which 

 colour covers the throat and breast, shading into dull white 

 on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; flanks, upper tail- 

 coverts, and rump chestnut-brown, of a somewhat lighter 

 shade than the back, the feathers on the flanks distinctly 

 streaked with black; primaries black, edged outwardly with 

 greenish yellow ; secondaries likewise black, but with much 

 broader edges of a clearer shade of yellow ; tail black, each 

 feather edged outwardly with greenish yellow ; bill and feet 

 horn-colour : whole length (about) 65 inches, wing 3*4, 

 tail 25, tarsus 1*1. 



Hab. Midway island, North Pacific. 



