■ s <> Director's Annual Report. 



rails. One which is very puzzling, especially to the natives, is a 

 cat like cry which is given in an inquiring intonation from some 

 hiding place in the undergrowth. 



The species was more abundant at Halawa than at any of the 

 other localities visited. This was doubtless due to the seclusion 

 afforded by the untrodden forests of that section. A few immature 

 birds were taken, but the majority of those seen were in the fully 

 adult plumage. The length of time required for the young to 

 acquire the adult plumage is apparently more than one year. 



On May i I took from thirty feet up in an Ohia tree growing 

 in the dense woods on the summit of l'uualu, a nest which I have 

 no hesitancy in referring to this species. In the locality was a 

 pair of resident Olomao, evidently the owners of the nest (Mus. 

 No. 4710) here described. Externally it is over 6.00 inches in 

 diameter by 3.50 inches deep. vSmall dead Ohia twigs form the 

 foundation of the structure. Into this is placed a generous lining 

 of moss and fine rootlets neatly woven together to form a substan- 

 tial thrush-like nest. The hollow of the nest is 3.50 inches across 

 by 1.50 inches in depth. The nest has evidently been used and 

 deserted, though unmistakably of recent construction. It is singu- 

 lar that as yet nothing is known of the egg of any of the species of 

 the genus, save the reference by Henshaw (Birds of the Hawaiian 

 Islands, p. 31) to the finding of a small fragment of an egg shell in 

 the stomach of a Hawaiian Hawk ( Buteo solitarius) which he sug- 

 gests might be a portion of an egg of Phceornis obscura of Hawaii. 



It seems worth while recording that an old native who accom- 

 panied me on my Moanui trip said that he had heard from his 

 father "that a long time ago there was on Molokai a small brown 

 bird that ran on the ground but could not fly," but that they had 

 all been dead for a long time. He gave its name as Moho (Pen- 

 nuld). He also said that his father had told him of the Klepaio 

 {Ckasiempis) being on Molokai in the olden time. Mr. Theodore 

 Meyer substantiated this report by saing that when he was a boy 

 it was generally known to the old natives that both the Moho and 

 Elepaio had been plentiful, but that they had long ago died out. 



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