Li 



HEMIGNATHUS PEOGEEtJS. 

 iiwi i . 



Hemignathus obscurus, Dole, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. xii. p. 298 (exx. ex Kauai) (1869) ; id. 



Hawaiian Alman. 1879, p. 45 (partim) • Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1887, p. 93 (nee 



Gmelin ; nee Lichtenstein) . 

 Hemignathus procerus, Cabanis, Journ. fiir Orn. 1889, p. 331 2 . 

 Hemignathus stejnegeri, S. B. Wilson, Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 6, iv. p. 400 (1 November, 1889) ; 



id. Ibis, 1890, p. 190, pi. vi. fig. 2; Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xii. p. 384 (1889). 



This bird, according to our present information, is peculiar to Kauai, and examples from 

 that island had been examined — though not recognized as different from H. obscurus — 

 by Judge Dole, when he wrote his article on the Birds of the Hawaiian Islands in the 

 'Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History' for 1869; finding, however, 

 that the birds from Kauai and Hawaii were perfectly distinct, I suggested, on my return 

 to England in 1888, that the former should be separated as R. stejnegeri. As the result 

 of inquiry regarding the various species of the genus in the Berlin Museum, informa- 

 tion was received through Professor Mobius that Professor Cabanis had come to a 

 similar conclusion on inspection of the specimens there, and had forestalled my proposed 

 title by a few weeks ; so that I must at once acknowledge his activity in securing priority 

 for his name H. procerus. 



Of this well-marked species, which I was enabled to figure for the first time in ' The 

 Ibis' for April 1890, Mr. V. Knudsen sent specimens in 1887 to Dr. Stejneger, who 

 showed them to me in Washington, and described them, though with some doubt, as 

 belonging to II. obscurus. At the time of my visit to the Island of Kauai in the month 

 of September it appeared to be rather scarce ; hence 1 obtained but few examples, 

 and was able to make but scanty notes on its habits ; of these, however, I am fortu- 

 nately in a position to give a good description, owing to the excellent observations made 

 by Mr. G. G Munro, assistant to Mr. Palmer, a collector in the interest of the Hon. 

 Walter Rothschild, who, since my return, has spent many months on the Island of 

 Kauai and has met with the bird in fair numbers. He has kindly sent me a most 



1 Hx. Francis Gay has informed me that this species is known by the name of Iiwi on Kauai, and not by that 

 of Akialoa, which name is applied to U. obscurus and, I think, also to II. ottvaceus, the two species found on 

 Hawaii. 



2 The species is said to have been described at the Meeting of the Allgemeine Ornithologische Gesellschaft 

 held on the 9th September, 1889, of which a report was published in ' Vossische Zeitung,' ~No. 429, of the 

 14th September. 



