52 HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 



credible that their manufacture occupied several generations, and 

 that they were ot priceless value when once made. The word 

 mamo had several meanings according to Andrew's Dictionary, 

 and one of them signified a yellow war-cloak covered with the 

 yellow feathers of the mamo. Alaneo was another name for a 

 royal robe made of the feathers of the mamo only. 



It is said that the birdcatchers in Kamehameha's time, and per- 

 haps before, were strictly enjoined not to kill any of the royal 

 birds, but to turn their captives loose when stripped of the coveted 

 yellow feathers. Had this injunction been strictly obeyed, the 

 golden harvest might have been reaped indefinitely without in any 

 wise affecting the welfare of the bird. But the forests in which 

 the bird-catcher plied his calling was distant and deep, and it is 

 possible that the injunction was not strictly heeded; for meat of 

 any kind was always scarce in Hawaii and in any form was highly 

 prized. However, the mamo was ever a wary bird and difficult 

 to secure, and we may feel tolerably sure that the ancient system 

 of the natives of limeing the mamo would never have caused the 

 bird's extinction, even if the kapu against its use for food was not 

 strictly observed. After the introduction of fire-arms into the 

 islands and they became at all general, bird lime rapidly gave way 

 to the quicker and more deadly shot-gun and the birds quickly 

 met their doom. In later historic' times, at least, the mamo has 

 always been very rare. 



We know next to nothing of the habits of the mamo. The 

 birds I saw in Kaumana were very active, and evidently were in 

 pursuit of insects which they were hunting in the very tops of the 

 tall ohias. The birds' flight from tree to tree was not rapid, but 

 was smooth and well sustained, and the bird on the wing reminded 

 me of nothing so much as the cuckoo. Though I observed the 

 birds at intervals for more than two hours, I did not hear a single 

 note. 



Description. — Glossy black, with the exception of the lower part of the 

 body, the rump, the tail coverts both above and below, the feathers of the 

 tibia and those of the anterior margin of the wing, which are of a fine 

 crocus yellow; the larger primary wing-coverts and under wing-coverts 

 white, the former mottled with blackish grey, and the latter tinged with 

 yellow. Remiges brownish black, tipped with dull white on the external 



