54, BAWAIIAN BIRDS-. 



though more particularly when, nectar is scarce, and its crop is 

 often crammed with a small green worm which infests the koa, 

 the ohia, and other trees. The iiwi was the species chiefly de- 

 pended upon in the olden times to furnish the red feathers for 

 the cloaks and helmets of the lesser chiefs. Like the mamo, the 

 00. and other bright feather-bearing birds, the iiwi was caught 

 chiefly by means of bird-lime. 



The flight of the iiwi, and also of the akakani, is accompanied 

 by rythmic pulsations, which are audible at quite a distance, and 

 which always betray the passage of the birds above the tree tops. 

 The flight of no other Hawaiian birds are thus marked. I have 

 fancied that the wing-beats of the akakani are pitched on a higher 

 key than of the iiwi, and that the flight of the two are thus dis- 

 tinguishable. 



Description. — Adult. General color bright vermillion. Wing and tail 

 black; innermost secondaries white or white edged; under wing coverts 

 white. Bill and feet vermilion; bill an inch long and much curved. 

 Length about 5% inches. 



Young in juvenile plumage (iiwi popolo) greenish yellow, variously 

 mottled with black. 



Palmeria dolei (Wilson). Crested Honey Eater. 



This remarkable and interesting species inhabits the higher 

 wooded districts of the island of Maui, to which island alone it is 

 confined, and where it is not found much if any below an altitude 

 of S,ooo feet. Like the akakani, to which it is evidently related, 

 the crested honey eater frequents the ohia trees almost exclu- 

 sively and, like that bird, derives a large part of its subsistence 

 from the nectar of the ohia flowers. Its long tube-like,' brush- 

 tipped tongue enables the bird to extract the honey from the tas- 

 sel-like blossoms with great ease and celerity. 



In midsummer, at least, Palmeria feeds to a considerable ex- 

 tent also upon insect food, especially upon the small green or 

 brown caterpillars which at this season swarm upon both the ohia 

 and koa trees. Upon these same caterpillars it also feeds its 

 young which, by the middle of June, are fully fledged and mostly 

 capable of caring for themselves, though still following their par- 

 ents. 



