

Drepanis (Vestiaria) coccinea, G. R. Gray-, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. p. 8, par Urn, (1859) ; id. Hand-list;, L 



p. 113 (1869). 



„ rosea, Dole, Hawaiian Alman. 1879, p. 44. 

 Loxops rosea, Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. x. p. 509 (1885). 



(In the above list of references, obvious misprints have been disregarded.) 



Figures notabiles. 



This species, like many others from the Sandwich Islands, was first obtained by Cook 

 and his fellow-voyagers ; but, unlike them, did not come into Latham's hands before 

 being made known elsewhere. The fortunate person in this case was Georg Forster, 

 at the time Professor of Natural History at Cassel, who, with his father, had accom- 

 panied the great navigator on a former voyage, and naturally took great interest in 

 the further results of his explorations ; while he was also, possibly, not averse from 

 stealing a march on other competitors, which was rendered possible by Barthold 

 Lohman \ a man from the same town, who had sailed with Cook's last expedition, and 

 immediately on its return brought Forster four examples of the present species, a 

 description of which he promptly published in the Gottingen Magazine for 1780, 

 under the title of Certhia coccinea. Latham, however, was not far behind, as in 1782 

 he named it the " Hook-billed Red Creeper " — no doubt in ignorance of having been 

 forestalled — while for the first figures of male and female we are indebted to Marter, 

 who was quickly succeeded by Merrem and later by Blumenbach. 



It is not a matter of surprise that many naturalists should have hastened to describe 

 and figure so remarkable and brilliant a bird directly it became known in civilized 

 countries, while their independent action had the effect, as will be seen above, of 

 complicating the synonymy ; but though it has been included in a vast number of 

 works, we hear nothing absolutely fresh until the time of Peale, who, during the 

 United States Exploring Expedition in the 'Vincennes' and 'Peacock,' found it 

 not at all uncommon on most of the Hawaiian group of islands, and mentions, as 

 former authors had done, the use of its feathers for capes and robes of chiefs, and 

 especially for the ornamental figures thereon ; noticing also its habit of feeding on 

 the honey of the gigantic lobelias. Cassin, in his account of the same expedition, 

 merely quotes from Peale with a summary of the information he gives, and other 

 writers have added little or nothing to our knowledge of the bird's habits, though many 

 more examples must have been received by various museums and private collections, in 

 which while by no means uncommon, they are yet more plentiful than, any other of the 

 Sandwich-Island species. The generic name of Certhia being discarded as inapplicable, 

 many substitutes have been proposed ; but the majority of writers on the subject 



1 This was probably the man spoken of by the anonymous author of the Journal of Captain Cook's last 

 voyage, published in 1781 (pp. 197-208), under the name of Bartholomew Lorimer or Loreman, who in an 

 extraordinary way was nearly lost on Christmas Island. 



