PSEUDONESTOR XANTHOPHRYS. 



Pseudonestor xanthophrys, Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, i. p. xxxv (1893) ; Perkins, Ibis, 

 1895, p. 118. 



Op this very curious stoutly-built form, peculiar to Maui, especially noticeable for its 

 abnormally large hooked bill, Mr. Perkins writes as follows : — 



" Of the Fringillidse (nearly all of which are peculiar to the Island of Hawaii) I 

 have already given some account of the habits; but there remains one, — Pseudonestor 

 xanthophrys, — peculiar to the Island of Maui, which is perhaps the most remarkable 

 form of all. It is local and rare, and seems to be confined to the highest forest on 

 Haleakala, at an elevation of some 5000 feet above sea-level. Being very tame and 

 apparently unwilling to fly far, I had on several occasions excellent opportunities to 

 learn something of its habits, and especially of the use of its curiously formed and 

 exceedingly powerful beak. The bird has an evident predilection for the koa trees 

 {Acacia falcata), and it is from these that it mainly gets its food. This consists 

 of the larva? of a highly peculiar endemic genus of Lougicorn beetles (Clytarlus), of 

 which there are in the islands a considerable number of species, nearly all of them 

 attached to the different species of native acacias. The larger ones usually burrow in 

 the main trunks, the smaller in the limbs and twigs above. It is on the larvse of the 

 latter that Pseudonestor feeds and in procuring them has developed the large hooked 

 beak, the powerful jaw-muscles, and heavy skull, which constitute its chief peculiarities. 

 It may be observed that the twigs in which the (Jlytarli have their burrows are not 

 generally rotten, but dry, and of excessive hardness, often surpassing in this respect 

 the still living and unaffected branches. The bird is sluggish, in its movements 

 parrot-like in the extreme, especially in the varied hanging attitudes that it assumes, 

 while the similarity is still further increased by the shape of its beak. 



" Those that I saw in the act of feeding were generally clinging to the under sides 

 of the thin branches or twigs, the head raised above the upper surface ; the point of 

 the curved maxilla was thrust into the burrow, the short mandible opposed thereto, 

 and pressed against the side or under surface of the twig, and the burrow opened out 

 by sheer strength. All that I shot contained larvse of these beetles, as many as 20 

 or 30 being found in the stomach of a single bird. No less than four species of 

 Clytarlus were found on the acacias in the actual haunts of Pseudonestor ; these too, 

 like the bird, are all of species peculiar to the same island. When alarmed the bird 

 gave frequent utterance to a short squeaking cry; it has besides a decided song, 



2 h 



