

brilliant rival, would fall an unsuspicious victim to this ingenious device. That 

 large numbers of the 0-0 must have been taken in former days is clear from the 

 quantities of "leis" or wreaths of feathers that now remain in the possession of the 

 natives, who still set so great store by them that it is but rarely that a traveller is able 

 to purchase so interesting a relic of a past age ; but I was fortunate enough to obtain 

 a small example, for the construction of which it is reckoned that two hundred 1 

 birds must have been sacrificed. The Hon. C. E. Bishop possesses some very fine 

 specimens, and the contents of a small tin box of them I estimated as being worth 

 ten thousand dollars. What the value of a cloak or cape may be it is impossible to 

 say. At the ceremony of opening the Hawaiian Legislature in 1888 capes were 

 donned by two of the native officials, and very imposing they looked, though the effect 

 could not be compared with that produced by the flowing war-cloak. 



This bird is preeminently a honey-sucker, extracting the nectar with its long tubular 

 tongue from the flowers of the ohia or from those of the great tree-lobelia, the hollow 

 curving corolla of which is perfectly adapted in shape to the 0-0's bill ; and though I 

 have on several occasions observed it feeding on the fruit of the banana, I believe this 

 to be only a secondary article of diet : in a state of captivity it has been kept with 

 success on the juice of the sugar-cane. 



It has a very peculiar call, whence its native name is derived ; and here I may 

 insert some extracts from notes taken in the district of Kona, where it is still fairly 

 common : — 



" We shot two O-Os to-day, but these birds are extremely difficult to obtain, as they 

 are constantly on the move from tree to tree, hardly ever at a less height than 90 feet 

 from the ground. Their cry is somewhat harsh, and resembles the sound of the letter O 

 repeated twice, with a well-marked pause between ; it is, however, extremely difficult 

 of imitation by the human voice. The yellow axillary tufts are very conspicuous when 

 this bird is on the wing, and its dipping mode of flight somewhat resembles that of the 

 Magpie, while its long tail still further suggests a resemblance to that bird. The 0-0 

 exhibits a decided preference for the extreme top of any tree, on which it alights, and 

 when thus perched may be seen continually jerking its long plume-like tail up and 

 down at a right angle to its body, all the while uttering its harsh cry." As mentioned 

 above, it is an extremely wary bird and most difficult of approach when met with 



1 It may be interesting to compare with the above the numbers of the Kaka {Nestor meridionalis) still 

 annually captured by the Maories ; I therefore quote the following paragraph from Sir Walter Buller's ' History 

 of the Birds of New Zealand,' (2nd ed. vol. i. p. 163) : — " The Kaka is particularly abundant in the Urewera 

 country, and during the short season the rata is in bloom the whole Maori population, old and young, are out 

 Kaka-hunting. An expert bird-catcher will sometimes bag as many as 300 in the course of a day ; and at 

 Euatahuna and Mangopohatu alone it is said that from 10,000 to 12,000 of these birds are killed during a good 

 rata season, which occurs about every three years." 



I may mention that the rata of New Zealand, of which an excellent representation is given in Sir 

 Walter's plate, is Metrosideros robusta, the crimson flowers of which are doubtless as attractive to the Kaka as 

 are to the 0-0 the larger but very similar blossoms of the ohia {Metrosideros polymorpha), of which a branch, 

 though not the flower, is shown in my Plate. 



