

CHLOBIDOPS KONA. 



PAL1LA. 



Chloridops kona, S. B. Wilson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1888, p. 218; Perkins, Ibis, 1893, p. 104. 



I shot a single example of this species on June 21st, 1887, when collecting at an 

 elevation of about 5000 feet in the district of Kona on the west coast of Hawaii, in a 

 great tract of forest, consisting principally of koa-trees (Acacia Jcoa) ; but there were 

 also the mamane (Sophora chrysophylla), the alii (Dodoncea viscosa), the sandalwood 

 (Santalum album), and the bastard sandalwood (Myoporum santalinum). I think that 

 as Loxioides bailleui, so far as I know 7 , feeds only on the seeds of the Sophora, it is most 

 probable that this big Finch eats them also. During my stay of four weeks I only 

 saw three examples of it. The specimen shot was on a tall Myoporum. The bird 

 must be extremely rare, as I have since collected at almost similar elevations, where 

 there are the same species of trees, but failed to obtain either of these Finches again, 

 nor do the natives know them, whence I conclude that they are peculiar to the 

 Kona district. 



The general appearance of this bird is that of an exaggerated Greenfinch (Fringilla 

 chloris, Linn.). 



Description. — Adult female. Bill dull flesh-colour ; lores dusky black. General 

 colour above bright olive-green, passing into golden-green on the throat and belly ; 

 abdomen whitish ; quill-feathers dusky black, edged outwardly with olive-green. 



Dimensions. — Total length 5*75 inches; wing from carpal joint 3-25; tail 2 ; bill — 

 from gape to tip "8, height from chin to forehead - 73 ; maxilla, width at base -52 ; 

 mandible, width at base *59. 



Mr. Eobert Perkins has recently published the following notes on the habits of this 

 species in ' The Ibis ' : — 



" The Palila (Chloridops kona), though an interesting bird on account of its peculiar 

 structure, is a singularly uninteresting one in its habits. It is a dull, sluggish, solitary 

 bird, and very silent — its whole existence may be summed up in the words ' to eat.' 

 Its food consists of the seeds of the fruit of the aaJca (bastard sandal-tree, and pro- 

 bably at other seasons of those of the sandal-wood tree), and as these are very minute, 

 its whole time seems to be taken up in cracking the extremely hard shells of this fruit, 



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