HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 65 



performances are less frequently heard thaii. snatches and bits of 

 song, dropped carelessly, as it were, by the .way-side while the 

 bird is purstiing its regular avocations. 



The powerful, hooked bill suggests a special use, arid this use 

 is made apparent when the bird is at work prying out from the 

 spadix the seeds of the ieie, which constitute the special food of 

 the ou. The ease and celerity with which, this task is accom- 

 plished sufficiently attest the purpose of the instrument and its 

 efficiency. The bird is very fond also of mamaki berries, which 

 seem to make up a large part of the subsistence of the young, at 

 least after they get fairly on the wing. The ou eats, also, many 

 other kinds of berries, such as the alani, kopiko, kawau and others. 

 It feeds, also, upon bananas and guavas, and the late Mr. E. 

 Hitchcock informed me that the first year his peach trees bore 

 the ou paid them marked attention, apparently fully approving of 

 this, to it, new kind of fruit. 



In connection with the love of the bird for small fruits, it is to 

 be remarked that it seems to pay no attention whatever to the 

 raspberries, originally imported from Jamaica, which have over- 

 run the whole of Olaa, and are everywhere very abundant. The 

 ou seems not to be at all partial to insect food at any time of year, 

 ^though occasionally I have fotihd larvae of several kinds in its 

 stomach. 



The ou is a common and generally distributed species in the 

 ohia forests of the island of Hawaii from about i,ooo feet up- 

 wards, and presumably its range in the other islands is the same. 

 It is generally found in small companies, never singly. Like most, 

 perhaps all Hawaiian birds, the ou seems to be always paired, and 

 I believe it is the rule that all Hawaiian birds pair for life. The ou 

 has a pretty and plaintive call-note, much like that of the Amer- 

 ican goldfinch and, as it is easily and accurately imitated, the 

 presence of the birds may always be detected by means of it. 

 Perched in the tops of ohias or hidden by the clustering leaves Oi 

 the ieie, the birds will continue to answer the call almost indef- 

 initely, all the while peering about with an air of innocent wonder 

 and surprise. Though the bird is so common nothing has yet been 

 learned of its nest and eggs. 



6-H B 



