

HIMATIONE MACULATA. 



AMAKIHI. 



Himatione maculata, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. i. p. 100 (1850-51) ; Hartlaub, Arch. f. Naturgesch. 

 1852, i. p. 110 ; Reichenbach, Handb. sp. Orn. p. 256 (1853) ; Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus, 

 xxxviii. p. 264 (1854); Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1887, p. 94; S. B. Wilson, Ibis, 

 1890, p. 186. 



Drepanis (Himatione) sanguinea,juv., G. R. Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. p. 9 (1859). 



Himatione virens, Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. x. p. 9, partim (1885). 



Viridonia maculata, Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, i. p. Ivii (1893). 



Oreomyza maculata, Rothschild, Avif. Laysan, p. 113, pi. (1893). 



This straight-billed bird, found only upon Oahu, was described by Prof. Cabanis, in 

 the ' Museum Heineanum,' from a male and an immature female obtained in that 

 island by Deppe when in company with Townsend in 1836-37. The validity of the 

 new species seemed, however, more than doubtful to G. R. Gray, and afterwards to 

 Dr. Sharpe when writing the tenth volume of the ' British Museum Catalogue of Birds '; 

 for the first author considered it to be the young of Himatione sanguinea, while the 

 last-named referred it to H. virens. Dr. Stejneger, nevertheless, reported it as certainly 

 distinct from the latter in 1887, and the matter was practically settled by the specimens 

 which I obtained in the same year, on my first visit to the Sandwich Islands. It is 

 true that all of these examples were immature ; but, owing to the kindness of the 

 authorities of the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, I was 

 enabled to compare with them an adult male procured by Townsend, which is that 

 described below. Mr. Rothschild, who at one time considered the bird to be a member 

 of his new genus Viridonia, says : " Wilson remarks that Cabanis's name ' maculata ' is 

 inappropriate." This, however, was not the word that I used ; I said that the name 

 was " unfortunate " — which it certainly is, for the adult male exhibits no traces of 

 spots, — and " unfortunate " has not the same meaning as " inappropriate." 



Himatione maculata is fairly common in the district of Halemann, where there are 

 still some remains of the former forest ; and Palmer found it " not rare " in the upland 

 region of Waialua at an altitude of 1500 feet and upwards, while Mr. Perkins obtained 

 a considerable number of specimens at the same place and at Kawailoa in 1893, some 

 of them at a rather lower elevation. Its habits resemble those of other members of 

 the genus {Oreomyza) as limited in the Introduction. 



