

FURTHER REMARKS 



EELATIONSHIPS OF THE DKEPANIDIDjE. 



BY 

 HANS GADOW, M.A, Ph.D., F.R.S. 



In my first paper on the anatomy of the Birds of the Sandwich Islands (' Aves 

 Hawaiienses,' Pt. II. pp. 1-23, Pis. I.-III.) I had come to the conclusion that the genera 

 Psittacirostra and Loxioides were FringillidEe, and not to be included among the 

 Drepanidida?. This view has never met with favour from Mr. Perkins, who has 

 persistently and consistently maintained, first, that the two genera in question are not 

 "Finches"; secondly, that they belong to the same group as do the Drepanididse, 

 whatever the relationship of the latter may be. The same applies to the more recently 

 discovered genera CMoridops, Mhodacanthis, and Pseudonestor. Mr. Perkins has arrived 

 at this notion from the study of the habits, the voice, and the peculiarly strong and 

 disagreeable scent of the birds. 



I promised Mr. Perkins to reconsider the whole question on the strength of more 

 extensive anatomical material 1 , and I now have much pleasure in declaring that most 

 likely his view is the right one. By using the words " most likely," I do not want to 

 hedge, but once for all draAv attention to the fact that such questions as the present 

 one cannot be proved, although they may be reasoned out. 



1 The material submitted to anatomical examination is numerous enough (Drepanis, Viridonia, Palmeria, 

 Himatione, Loxops, Oreomyza, Pseudonestor, Psittacirostra, some of them in several specimens either complete 

 or in parts), but it is sadly deficient in so far that as regards Rhodacanthis and CJiloridops there is only one 

 single tongue of the former ! Of course this whole investigation is thereby rendered incomplete. Rhodacanthis 

 and CJiloridops are both extreme forms. It seems reasonable to connect them with Loxioides, Psittacirostra, 

 and Pseudonestor. Nothing would be gained by trying to exclude the first two genera from the Drepanididae 

 after once the other three have been admitted. The same applies to Oiridops anna, of which hearsay report 

 tells that it has or had a split and somewhat frayed-out tongue. 



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