7* 



for which its extraordinarily powerful beak and heavy head have been developed. I 

 think there must have been hundreds of the small white kernels in those that 1 

 examined. The incessant cracking of the fruits when one of these birds is feeding, the 

 noise of which can be heard for a considerable distance, renders the bird much easier 

 to get than it otherwise would be. It is mostly found on the roughest lava, but also 

 wanders into the open spaces in the forest. I never heard it sing (I once mistook the 

 young Rhodacanthis song for that of the Chloridops), but my boy informed me that he 

 had heard it once, and that its song was not like that of Rhodacanthis. Only once did 

 I see it display any real activity, when a male and female were in active pursuit of one 

 another amongst the sandal-trees. Its beak is nearly always very dirty, with a brown 

 substance adherent to it, which must be derived from the sandal-nuts." 



