' 



ACKULOCEKCUS APICALIS. 



" Yellow-tufted Bee-eater/' Dixon, Voy.pl. to face p. 381 * (figure only) (1798) [nee Latham, Gen. 



Synops. i. p. 683). 

 "Yellow-tufted Bee-eater, var. A," Latham, Gen. Synops. Suppl. 2, p. 149 (1802). 

 Moho nobilis, var., G. R. Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. Pacific Ocean, p. 9 (1859). 

 Moho apicalis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 381 j Dole, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. 1869, p. 297 



(nee Hawaiian Alman. p. 46, quse = Drepanis pacifica !); G. R. Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 114 (1869) ; 



Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Mus. ix. p. 285. 

 Mohoa apicalis, Sclater, Ibis, 1871, p. 360, 1879, p. 92; Von Pelzeln, Journ. f. Orn. 1872, p. 26. 



Figura notabilis. 



This species, figured as the " Yellow-tufted Bee-eater " in Captain George Dixon's 

 ' Voyage round the World,' was described as " Variety A " of the same by Latham 

 (Log. cit.), and was properly distinguished specifically from Acrulocercus nobilis by 

 Gould in 1860, on the strength of two examples — supposed to be one of either sex — 

 which are now in the British Museum. 



Gould stated that " Dixon's bird was obtained at Owhyhee," and believed that his 

 own " two specimens were brought from the same island," but produced no evidence 

 in support either of his statement or of his belief, while we are now in a position to show 

 that each was almost certainly unfounded ; and there cannot be a doubt that the present 

 species inhabited Oahu, where, in January 1837, a male and female were procured by 

 Deppe, now preserved at Vienna, as recorded by Von Pelzeln (ut supra). An examina- 

 tion of Dixon's work shows that his ship, the ' Queen Charlotte,' anchored but once, and 

 then for little more than twenty-four hours, off Owhyhee (Hawaii), and that in the 

 historic bay of Karakakooa 1 1 the very district at that time and still inhabited by the 

 kindred species A. nobilis, alongside of which the present is hardly likely to have 



1 There is a discrepancy (which should be noticed) between the account of Dixon's voyage (pp. 50, 52), as 

 told by William Beresford the narrator (cf. Portlock's ' Voyage,' p. 6, note), and the ship's log, as printed by 

 her Commander (Dixon, Voyage, App. ii. p. 10), in regard to the precise day (whether the 26th or 27th May, 

 1786) on which the ' Queen Charlotte ' and her consort the ' King George ' (under Capt. Portlock) anchored in 

 this bay ; but that is of no importance, and there is none as to the duration of the ships' stay, confirmed as it 

 is by Portlock (op. cit. pp. 62, 65). The crews were in want, among other things, of water, which their 

 commanders (both of whom, it may be observed, had served on Cook's voyage and knew the place) expected 

 to get there, but to their disappointment the sources were " tabooed," and the ships had to be off as soon as 

 they could. Though on two occasions subsequently coasting along the shores of Hawaii, near enough to 

 communicate with and receive supplies from the natives, but more than once interrupted by bad weather, the 

 ships never brought up, and it can hardly be supposed that, when fresh meat and vegetables were the sole 

 object of the intercourse, anything so unimportant as a small bird would be thought of in the way of traffic. 



