LOXIOIDES BAILLEUI. 



PALILA. 



Loxioides bailleui, Oustalet, Bull. Soc. Philomath. Paris, ser. 7, i. p. 100 (1877) ; Ibis, 1878, 

 p. 376; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. x. p. 49 (1885). 



baiUeni (err.), Sclater, Ibis, 1879, pp. 90, 92, pi. ii* 



* Figura notahilis. 



The literary history of this bird is of the simplest nature. Described by M. Oustalet 

 in 1877, as a new species of a new genus, undoubtedly Fringilline, and similar to 

 Psittirostra, while easily distinguishable from it, the only dissentients of authority seem 

 to be Messrs. Sclater and Sharpe, who have considered both to belong to the Family 

 Dicceidce, or at least to approach it very nearly. The two original examples were sent 

 by M. Bailleu 1 from the Sandwich Islands in 1876 ; and though M. Oustalet did not 

 state the exact locality from which they came in the first instance, he afterwards 

 informed Mr. Sclater that the habitat was Hawaii, where the author also obtained his 

 specimens. 



A good coloured figure is given in ' The Ibis,' as above, from the pencil of Mr. Keu- 

 lemans, to illustrate Dr. Sclater's paper " On recent Additions to our Knowledge of 

 the Avifauna of the Sandwich Islands." In this paper the author makes some most 

 valuable observations on this " very remarkable type " as he terms it, which I here 

 transcribe : — " It will be at once observed that Loxioides in general appearance is 

 closely allied to Psittirostra. The form, size, and distribution of colours are similar. 

 When we come to a closer comparison of the skins, the result arrived at is the same. 

 The wing-formula is nearly the same in each. There are nine fully formed 

 primaries, of which the first is about equal to the fifth, and the intermediate ones 

 are the longest in the wing. In Psittirostra these three primaries are nearly equal 

 in length ; in Loxioides the second is rather more elongated beyond its fellows. 

 The structure of the feet in the two forms is also nearly similar, those of Psittirostra 

 being, however, shorter and stouter. The tarsi in both cases are unmistakably 

 Oscinine, and the divisions of the scutes are quite obsolete. In the shape of the bill 

 only, as will be seen by the outlines (a of the bill of Loxioides, and b of that of Psitti- 

 rostra) given on the plate, there is considerable divergence, that of the newly discovered 

 form being considerably shorter and much more swollen laterally than that of Psitti- 



1 The late M. Bailleu was an enthusiastic naturalist, and spent some months at Dr. Trousseau's mountain- 

 cottage in the district of Kona on Hawaii, engaged in forming a collection of birds which he forwarded to the 

 Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, with a second collection consisting of fishes. 



