34 HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 



equally at home in the tops of the tallest trees and in the lowest 

 shrubbery and, occasionally, it descends even to the ground in 

 search of insects. (Perhaps if it has a favorite hunting-ground 

 next to the ohia tree, it is the mamake, because that tree, with its 

 abundant berries, harbors many insects, and no cktmp of mamake 

 is without a pair of these little birds.) 



The curiosity of the elepaio is insatiable and a pair or two are 

 always on hand to inspect an intruder and to learn his business. 

 It will follow and catch an insect on the wmg which it has 

 chanced to dislodge from some hiding place, but it never sits and 

 watches for flying insects as do the American flycatchers. In 

 fact by far the greater parts of its insect food is gleaned from the 

 branches of trees and shrubs, and from among the lichens and 

 tangled ferns. Its motions generally and its hunting habits are 

 those of a wren rather than those of a flycatcher. Indeed its 

 resemblance to the wrens is remarkable, especially when it droops 

 its wings by its side and cocks its tail over its back, which is its 

 ^reguent habit. 



Elepaio appears to be the only Hawaiian woodland bird that 

 nests low down habitually. I once found a nest of this bird on 

 the horizontal scape of a fern (Sadleria) within two feet of the 

 ground. 



This, however, is a very exceptional location. Usually the 

 nests are situated in a small tree in the shade of the forest, like the 

 mamake, young koa, or one of the berry-bearing trees, like the 

 kawau, and are placed from ten to thirty feet up. The nest is 

 built in an upright fork or saddled upon a horizontal branch and 

 supported by lateral twigs, and is a beautiful structure, made of 

 grasses woven into a deep cup and most tastefully decorated on 

 the outside with fern fronds and lichens held in place by silk 

 strands taken from spiders' webs. 



The elepaio usually lays two eggs, sometimes three. They are 

 of a pure grayish white, more or less profusely sprinkled with 

 reddish-brown dots. No bird has a more important place in Ha- 

 waiian mythology than the elepaio, and omens and warnings were 

 formerly read from its actions and notes. Of the latter it has 

 several, i/lts name is the native interpretation of its song — if it 

 ■can properly be called a song — and the bird iterates and re-iterates 



