HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 41 



for the most part, the woodpeckers would pfove of immense ser- 

 vice in tearing open their burrows and in reducing their numbers. 

 Having to do without woodpeckers, however. Nature has at- 

 tempted to accomplish their work in a very different way. She 

 has endowed several birds with stout legs and sharp, strong 

 claws to enable them to run swiftly over the trunks and limbs of 

 trees. She has given to others long bills and brush tipped tongues 

 for probing hidden cavities and seizing the insect prey; and she 

 has equipped the akiapolaau with a special device in the shape 

 of a more or less effective hammer to expose the hidden retreats 

 of larvae. 



But to return to our akiapolaau. So far as the general forest 

 is concerned the bird is a rather rare one, but in certain localities 

 north of the Wailuku I have found it rather common. It has a 

 short but sweet warbling song which it utters at frequent inter- 

 vals as it is engaged in hunting. 



Description. — Adult male. Above bright olive-green, brighter on head 

 and rump; wing and tail quills brown, edged with olive-green, as also the 

 wing-coverts ; a black loral spot ; beneath gamboge yellow ; sides and flanks 

 washed with olive-green; legs plumbeus; bill bluish-black, bluish at base. 

 Length about 5.75 inches. 



Adult female. Above dull olive with faint greenish cast, greener on 

 rump; beneath olive-yellow, much deeper on chin and throat, sides and 

 flanks greenish-olive. 



Young. Are much duller above than the female; below olive, washed 

 with yellowish, especially on abdomen. Both the females and young differ 

 much individually, as regards extent and depth of color. 



Heterorhynchus lucidus Lichtenstein. 



This is the Oahu representative of the akiapolaau. As sug- 

 gested by Wilson, it is probable that the original specimens upon 

 which the species rests were collected by Deppe and Townsend 

 in Nuuanu Valley in 1837. The species has not been seen since 

 by any explorer, and it is all but certain that it is extinct. Very 

 few specimens exist in museums. 



Description. — Adult male (in Paris Museum). Above olive-green, 

 darker and more olive on the back, lighter and more green on the head, 

 wing, and tail-coverts. Lores and a line behind the eye, brownish-black; 



