March 17, 1892] 



NATURE 



469 



due to human agency, and accordingly I do not attach 

 any importance to the fact ; but there is one very 

 puzzling species, of which only a few specimens seem to 

 have been preserved, that needs particular attention. 

 This was described by Judge Dole under the name of 

 *' Fringilla anna" but, of course, is no true Fringilla. 

 Mr. Wilson brought home but a single specimen, which 

 he owed to the kindness of the Hon. C. R. Bishop, it 

 having been formerly in the Mills Collection ; and, I 

 believe, will establish for it a new genus, Ciridops—?,o 

 named because its bright coloration recalls the well- 

 known Emberiza citis of Linnaeus, the Painted Bunting 

 of authors, or "Nonpareil" of bird-dealers. It is sup- 

 posed to be now extinct, but it was a truly native 

 species ; it probably belongs to the fauna which I have 

 above called " Columbian" (for want of a better name) ; 

 but I cannot suppose it to have been so early a settler as 

 the DrepanididcB, since it has changed so little. On the 

 genus Chasiempts I would offer only one remark, and 

 that is a word of caution to those who would, on the 

 evidence of from a couple to half-a-dozen of specimens, 

 or perhaps even on the evidence of a badly-coloured 

 plate, attempt to break it up into definable " species." 

 There remains of land- birds the genus Phceornis, which 

 earlier systematists were inclined to put among the Fly- 

 catchers {Muscicapidce). The examples in spirit, placed 

 by Mr. Wilson at Dr. Gadow's disposal, have enabled the 

 latter to set aside that view, and to show that, of all the 

 Families to which this genus has been supposed to be 

 allied, " it differs least from the Turdidce" and he would 

 regard it " as, a generalized or rather primitive Thrush."^ 

 Of the water-birds I do not now propose to speak. 

 Though possessing very many points of special interest 

 to the ornithologist, so far as I understand them they 

 throw no particular light on the general questions I have 

 attempted to consider ; and I would conclude this sketch 

 of the Ornithology of the Sandwich Isles by referring to 

 the unhappy tate of one of the most beautiful of their 

 birds— the " Mamo," as I am told it was latterly called— 

 Drepanis pacifica^ one of the rarest species in collections, 

 and apparently wholly extinct. Until Mr. Wilson brought 

 the specimen which he has kindly given to this Uni- 

 versity, there seems not to have been one in the British 

 Islands since the dispersal of the Leverian Museum, 

 when two were bought by the Austrian agent, and are 

 now at Vienna. How many other specimens may exist 

 in the world I do not know, but the number can hardly 

 exceed half-a-dozen. The bird was destroyed for the sake 

 of its rich yellow feathers, used in former days to decorate 

 the state robes of the chiefs, and according to all accounts 

 a glorious sight one of those robes when in all its fresh- 

 ness must have been. As the species became scarce, 

 recourse was had to the yellow tufts of Acrulocercus 

 nobilis, which in depth of colour are very inferior ; and 

 when the Drepanis had ceased to exist, the name " O-o," 

 which it seems to have borne in Cook's days, was trans- 

 ferred to the surviving species, according to a practice of 

 which I have observed several instances in other nations. 

 The^general similarity of coloration in Acrulocercus and 

 Drepanis is, indeed, obvious, and Dr. Gadow is inclined 

 to consider the latter to have been the imitating form. 

 If so, its mimicry has proved its destruction ; but it clearly 

 could not have foreseen that fashion should ordain its 

 acquired yellow and black feathers to become desirable 

 commodities among the human race, and it would be 

 well to suspend judgment on this point. It had most 

 likely a very limited range, which would, of course, 

 hasten its end ; and its two most conspicuous relatives, 

 the scarlet Vestiaria coccifica, and the crimson Himatione 

 sanguinea,\.\\o\x^\v\ equal request for their gaudy plumage, 

 still exist, inhabiting (as will be seen by the table) all the 

 islands that have been examined. How to account for 



' A minute comparison with the New-Zealand Turna^ra, if that be still 

 in the land of the living, would be desirable. 



NO. 1 168, VOL. 45] 



the disappearance of Chcetoptila angustipiuma is beyond 

 my power. It has no attractive colouring, and yet is 

 declared to be extinct. The specimen given to us by 

 Mr. Wilson is, I believe, the only one ever brought to 

 Europe, and there seems to be but one (the type) in any 

 American Museum. In mentioning the former I must 

 acknowledge gratefully the generosity of Mr. Wilson, 

 who promised a complete set of his bird-skins to the 

 Museum of his old University on the completion of his 

 work, a promise that he will doubtless perform. 



Finally, I would point out that the conclusions estab- 

 lished by Dr. Gadow's researches seem to coincide very 

 much with those arrived at by Dr. David Sharp and Mr. 

 Blackburn from their investigation of a small collection 

 of Hawaiian Coleoptera (Trans. Roy. Dublin Society, 

 series 2, vol. iii. Part 6). The entomological captures of 

 Mr, Perkins are therefore awaited with considerable in- 

 terest ; and still more valuable, perhaps, may be his con- 

 chological collections, for it seems doubtful at present 

 whether the Mollusks of the Sandwich Isles can be brought 

 into line with their Birds and their Beetles. There is 

 every chance of this question, among many others of 

 importance, being solved if Mr. Perkins is enabled to 

 prolong his stay for sufficient time ; but that depends upon 

 the financial support he may receive at home from the 

 two learned bodies which I have mentioned, and from 

 the Hawaiian Government and influential residents in 

 the Islands. Alfred Newton. 



Cambridge, 13 February, 1892, 



PROF. BUNS EN AND THE CHEMICAL 

 SOCIETY. 



T T was announced at the last meeting of the Chemical 

 ■■• Society that it was proposed to present the following 

 address to Prof. Bunsen, who has now been fifty years a 

 Foreign Member of the- Society ; and the wish was ex- 

 pressed that, among those who sign it, all who have 

 been his pupils should, as far as possible, be included. 

 Fellows of the Society who have been pupils of Prof. 

 Bunsen are requested to communicate with the Senior 

 Secretary before March 19, in order that they may receive 

 a form for signature. 



To Privy Councillor Prof. Bunsen, Fellow of the Royal 

 Society. 



Your Excellency,— Fifty years have elapsed since 

 the Chemical Society of London honoured itself by elect- 

 ing you one of its Foreign Members. Your name, and 

 that of your illustrious fellow-countryman Liebig, are, in 

 fact, first on a list which includes the most distinguished 

 cultivators of chemical science in every civilized country 

 of the world. 



Our Society remembers with gratitude that you en- 

 riched the first volume of its Transactions by communi- 

 cating to it the results of your ever-memorable investiga- 

 tion of cacodyl and its compounds. That you should 

 have sent to us, in the first and most critical year of our 

 existence, a memoir which the chemical world will ever 

 regard as one of the classics of our science, is a signifi- 

 cant proof of the beneficent interest with which you 

 regarded our efforts to foster the growth of chemical 

 learning in this country. 



Your masterly investigations, in collaboration with our 

 Fellow, Sir Lyon Playfair, on the gases evolved from iron 

 furnaces, made by methods which you were the first to 

 bring to perfection, greatly extended our knowledge of 

 the theory of the smelting of iron. By the permanent 

 benefit thus conferred on one of the most important of 

 our industries, you have largely augmented our national 

 wealth. 



The half-century during which you have been asso- 

 ciated with our Society has been fruitful in great dis- 



