

leading me astray, as I saw in them what appeared to be a solution of my difficulties, 

 which had been rather increased by the contribution to the subject of HH. von 

 Berlepsch and Leverkiihn in 1890 ; but I found that the Oahu bird was without a 

 name, and in 1891 I gave it one, C. gayi. So matters remained until the following 

 year, when Mr. Perkins was despatched by the Joint Committee of the Eoyal Society 

 and the British Association, and his attention was particularly drawn to the desirability 

 of clearing up the question. This he has most effectually done, with the result, to me 

 satisfactory, of confirming my original conclusion as to the existence in the islands of 

 three species, neither more nor fewer. It is also gratifying to find that in this point 

 Mr. Eothschild agrees with me. 



This small Flycatcher is extremely common on Hawaii, and by far the tamest and most 

 familiar bird of any I met with in the islands. Its call very much resembles a man's 

 sharp whistle, which may be expressed almost exactly as " twee-ou" and is uttered 

 repeatedly and with piercing shrillness ; besides this, its general note, it has a great 

 variety of others — at times giving vent to a gurgling sound like that of our Whitethroat, 

 while at others its note may be readily mistaken for that of the Quail. 



We found a nest in an alii tree (Dodoncea viscosa) in Kona on the 11th of June, the 

 two old birds being close by ; unfortunately it contained no eggs, but from the anxious 

 way in which the birds were hopping about and watching us, there could be no doubt 

 of the ownership. A few days later I found another nest, composed almost entirely of 

 the bleached seed-vessels of the cape gooseberry — in Hawaiian parlance poha or 

 pahina — -an introduced plant which has taken firm hold in many upland regions of 

 Hawaii ; it was attached on three sides to the slender branches of a small sandalwood 

 tree (Santalum album), somewhat after the manner in which the Sedge-Warbler 

 attaches its nest to the stems of plants : unfortunately this nest, too, was empty. 



Mr. Perkins remarks: — " Of Chasiem/pis I have several times found the nest (without 

 eggs, unfortunately). It is small, very neat and compact, placed from 10 to 30 feet 

 from the ground, and generally well concealed." 



On the 31st of May, 1887, in the ohia forests above Kaawaloa in Kona, we met 

 with an entire family of this species: the young were being fed by the parents, 

 and I was loth to shoot them ; but as young birds had, so far as I knew, never before 

 been obtained, I secured two, which show no trace whatever of the white on the smaller 

 wing-coverts seen in the mature birds. One very charming habit, possessed by the 

 Elepaio, is that of spreading its tail in the shape of a fan on alighting on a branch, 

 reminding one much of the Fan-tailed Warbler. 



I have often seen this species catch small moths on the wing, and, as Mr. Perkins 

 remarks in his notes (Ibis, 1893, p. 110) : — " These birds live chiefly on insects and 

 their larva?. The insects they often take on the wing, their beaks closing with a very 

 audible snap, often nearly as loud as the ' cracking ' of Chloridops. They frequently 

 descend to the ground or on to fallen trees, where they get wood-boring larvse or small 

 myriapods." The writer then goes on to relate the following anecdote which he had 

 from a native woman in Kona, and which was told me several times while living 

 on Hawaii : — " « Of all the birds the most celebrated in ancient times was the Elepaio, 



