HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 75 



the well known musky scent of the Drepanine birds, originated 

 with the latter and was communicated from them in the shipping 

 box or in the cabinet. The odor from freshly made skins of the 

 Drepanididw is exceedingly penetrating, as well as lasting, and 

 will attach to any object confined with them.. Freshly killed spec- 

 imens of Moho have no perceptible odor. I have had in hand 

 over a dozen freshly killed M. nobilis, and they are absolutely un- 

 scented. Moreover Mr. Perkins, who has shot braccatus, as well 

 as nobilis and bishopi, informs me that none of these species pos- 

 sess the Drepanine odor. 



The matter has considerable interest since, up to the present 

 time, no Hawaiian bird has been found to possess this peculiar 

 musky scent, save only the members of the Drepanididce, and 

 they all have it in perceptible degree. 



It might at first seem that this peculiar odor, so unlike that of 

 other birds, is peculiar to the islands, and is derived from the food 

 of the birds. The several members of the Drepanine Family, how- 

 ever, diflfer so much in regard to their food, as to render such a 

 supposition hardly tenable. Moreover, there are other birds, in 

 nowise related to the Drepanine Family, as the several species of 

 Moho, of Chasienipis, and of Phasornis, which live upon much 

 the same fare as the Drepanids, and yet are without the peculiar 

 scent of the latter. 



There seems, therefore, good reason to conclude that this odor, 

 universal among the Drepanids and absent in all the other island 

 birds, indicates a common ancestry for the former, and may yet 

 prove a sufficient clew to their original home whence they migrat- 

 ed, to the islands. 



Description. — ^Adult male. Head black, feathers stiff and lanceolate; 

 above slaty brown, lighter on rump; interscapularies with light shaft - 

 streaks; wing and tail black, central pair of rectrices much exceeding 

 the rest ; anterior edge of wing white ; chin, throat and upper breast black, 

 with tranverse sub-apical bars of white; rest of under parts slaty brown; 

 feathers of lower breast with light shaft-streaks; lower thigh chrome- 

 yellow. Length about 7.7s inches. 



Female similar but with whiter throat. 



