ik 



with a long bill also, as Lichtenstein figured an example of each when founding his 

 genus in the year first mentioned. 



In the Island of Hawaii, to which, as far as we know at present, it is peculiar, 

 this bird is decidedly rare, and I obtained only three specimens during a stay of some 

 five weeks in June in Kona, where it frequents the koa trees alone, running up their 

 great smooth trunks and along their limbs in search of insects. In the mamane 

 woods near Mana, I subsequently found it in considerable numbers in the month of 

 January, when these trees are in full flower, resembling laburnums with their 

 golden clusters. Its movements are very rapid, and the quickness with which it 

 slips from one side of a limb to the other is surprising : I never could detect it in the 

 act of sucking honey from flowers, nor, indeed, have I seen any of its congeners so 

 engaged ; Mr. Palmer, however, has seen II. stejnegeri sucking the Lehua flowers. 

 I noticed that many of the branches of the mamane were dead, or sometimes half the 

 tree, while the bark of large examples was easily detached and well suited to the 

 penetrating bill of this bird ; so that, although I was unable to approach near enough 

 to watch the precise mode of procedure, the bill is probably thrust into cracks and 

 crannies in the decayed wood, where grubs and insects are found, or it may loosen the 

 bark and then capture the insects beneath with its long tongue. 



Its vertical range seems to be from 3500 to 5000 feet, as I never met with it in the 

 lower forest-zone. 



Description. — Adult male. Head dull olive-yellow, passing into greenish olive, which 

 covers the entire upper surface ; throat and breast deep gamboge-yellow, shading into 

 dull white on abdomen ; under tail-coverts ashy olive ; wing- and tail-quills greyish 

 brown edged with olive ; bill and feet slaty black. 



Adult female. Head, sides of face, and entire upper surface ashy olive ; throat and 

 upper part of breast light gamboge-yellow, passing into dull ashy washed with lemon- 

 yellow ; wing- and tail-quills greyish brown, edged with a duller shade of olive than 

 in the male. 



Immature. Upper surface uniform ashy, slightly tinged with olive on mantle and 

 rump ; chin and throat dull white, passing into ashy brown on flanks, while the breast 

 and abdomen are ashy tinged with primrose-yellow. 



Dimensions. — Male. Total length 5'75 inches, wing from carpal joint 3 - 35, maxilla 

 following the curve 1*]5, chord subtending the curve '85, mandible "65, difference 

 between maxilla and mandible - 40, tarsus - 95 5 tail 2-15. 



Female. Total length 5'10 inches, wing from carpal joint 3, maxilla following the 

 curve '95, chord subtending the curve *70, mandible -60, tarsus '85, tail 1-65. 



