to have been used for Acrulocercus nobilis also, the yellow feathers of which were 

 applied to the same purposes of cloak manufacture, it cannot be confidently averred 

 which of the two was intended by the author ; yet, if it be true that Drepanis was 

 common at Hawaii at that period, the voyagers can hardly have failed to meet with it 

 there during their seven weeks' stay. 



The first scientific appellation was that of Certhia pacijica, bestowed by Gmelin in 

 1788; while it is somewhat remarkable that no figure of so fine a bird should have 

 been published before the time of Vieillot, who took his illustration from one of the 

 examples described by Latham, a drawing of which, by Sydenham Edwards, was lent 

 to him by Parkinson, then owner of the Leverian Museum. An earlier drawing by 

 Ellis (No. 27) is, however, still to be found at the British Museum inscribed " W. 

 W. Ellis vivum delin* et pinx* 1779." Temminck, thirty-eight years after the date 

 of the ' General Synopsis,' separated the present species from Certhia under the new 

 generic name of Drepanis, which is now generally recognized. 



Peale, in his account of the ornithology of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, asserts 

 that it was found at Hanalei in Kauai, and mentions the yellow feathers and their 

 use : but Cassin, in his later edition of the same work, considers that he confounded it 

 with Acrulocercus braccatus ; and this is probably the case, as there are no tufts on 

 the thighs in Drepanis, nor have we any other proof of its occurrence on the island 

 of Kauai. Bloxam gives us no information in his account of the voyage of the 

 ' Blonde,' though the bird does not appear, as will be seen below, to have been extinct 

 in 1859. A single example was purchased by Temminck at the dispersal of the 

 Bullock Museum, when it was described in the catalogue of the 17th day of the sale 

 as " Great Hook-billed Creeper, C. pacijica " ; while another is stated by Herr von 

 Pelzeln (Ibis, 1873, p. 21) to have been in Levaillant's cabinet. 



Of this extremely rare and apparently extinct species I obtained two specimens from 

 a collection which was formed by the late Mr. Mills x of Hilo in Hawaii, some thirty 

 years or more ago. The fact of its native name " Mamo " being the same as that 

 used for the war-cloaks mentioned below seems to imply that they received it from 

 this bird, and that they were originally chiefly wrought of the beautiful golden yellow 

 feathers from its back and vent, which are much deeper in colour, as they are larger 

 and longer, than the axillary tufts of Acrulocercus nobilis. 



I could obtain no certain information of examples having been observed since 

 those in the Mills collection were procured — about 1859, though while staying at Olaa 

 in the district of Puna in Hawaii, where Mr. Mills secured them, I was assured by 

 the natives that the bird still existed, and at the time of my visit (October) had, 

 together with the O-O, migrated to the mountains, which is barely possible. I saw 



1 To the late Mr. J. Mills of Hilo, Hawaii, science is indebted for the preservation not only of several 

 specimens of Drepanis ■pacijica, but also of several more species now extinct. Mr. Mills died, I regret to say, 

 some two months after I landed on the Islands. He was an ardent naturalist, and would shut up his store 

 and disappear in the forest for weeks together, accompanied only by natives who aided him in collecting 

 specimens. Mr. Mills was also an accomplished artist, some of his paintings possessing great merit. 





