

HEMIGNATHUS LUCIDUS. 



Hemignathus lucidus, Lichtenstein, Abhandl. k. Akad. Berlin, 1838, p. 451, t. v. figg. 2,3*; id. 



Nomencl. Av. Mtis. Berol. p. 55 (1854) ; Hartlaub, Arch. f. Naturgescli. 1852, i. p. 110 



(partim) ; Reichenbach, Handb. sp. Orn., Tenuirostres, p. 313 (1853) ; Cassin, U.S. Expl. 



Exped., Mamm. & Orn. p. 180 (1858) ; Dole, Proc. Boston Soc. N. H. xii. p. 298 (1869) ; 



id. Hawaiian Alman. 1879, p. 45 ; Sclater, Ibis, 1871, p. 360 ; id. op. cit. 1879, p. 92; Sharpe, 



Cat. B. Brit. Mus. x. p. 5 (1885) ; S. B. Wilson, Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 6, iv. p. 401 (1889); 



id. Ibis, 1890, p. 192; Hartert, Katal. Vogelsamml. Mus. Senckenb. p. 28 (1891). 

 Heterorhynchus lucidus, Reichenbach, Handb. sp. Orn., Tenuirostres, p. 223 (1853), Taf. dxci. figg. 



4012, 4013*; Rothschild, Avif. Laysan, p. 105 (1893). 

 Brepanis {Hemignathus) lucida, G. R. Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 96 (1847) [partim) ; id. Cat. B. Trop. Isl. 



p. 9 (1859) ; id. Hand-1. B. i. p. 113 (1869). 



* Figuroe notabiles. 



Ouk knowledge of this species, as of H. lichtensteini, is due to the Prussian collector 

 Deppe, who sent specimens of it which he obtained in Oahu to the Museum of Berlin, 

 where they were described and figured by its Director, the celebrated Lichtenstein, as 

 above stated. While Deppe was in the Sandwich Islands he was joined by the still 

 better-known American naturalist Townsend, who (with Nuttall) accompanied Captain 

 Wyeth's expedition across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, and thence 

 proceeded to Honolulu. In his work 1 Townsend states that he and Deppe, in January 

 1837, hired a house in the Nuano Valley, five miles from that town, with the object of 

 collecting birds and plants, and we may well suppose that this species (and II. lichten- 

 steini also) was found by them in that district. On Townsend's return he sent several 

 specimens of birds collected by him to Audubon, then in this country, and among them 

 two of the present species, which were acquired by the late Sir William Jarcliue, at the 

 sale of whose collection, in 1886, they were bought for the Museum of the University 

 of Cambridge. On one of them being submitted, at my request, to Professor Cabanis 

 for comparison with the type at Berlin, that eminent authority declared the two to be 

 specifically identical. This result was the more satisfactory since I myself was unable 

 to meet with the species, and later explorers have been no more fortunate, so that 

 there is reason to fear that it has become extinct. It was undoubtedly peculiar to the 

 island of Oahu, where Deppe informed Lichtenstein that it frequented the plaintain- 

 blossoms in considerable numbers. 



Mr. Rothschild holds me much to blame for having referred, the short-billed 



1 Narrative of a journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, and a visit to the Sandwich 

 Islands, Chili, &c, with a Scientific Appendix. Philadelphia : 1839. 8vo. 



It is much to be regretted that Townsend's ' Appendix ' is limited to the Mammals and Birds of the Oregon 

 Territory. The observations of a naturalist so well informed as he was on the zoology of the Hawaiian Islands 

 at that time would be invaluable. 



