178 



OENITHOLOGY. 



This beautiful little species appears to be one of the most abundant of 

 the birds inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands, and is perhaps the most fre- 

 quently met with in ornithological collections. Several specimens in 

 excellent plumage were obtained by the naturalists of the Expedition, 

 and are now in the collection. 



Mr. Peale observes respecting this bird : 



" This curious and highly colored bird is found inhabiting most of 

 the Hawaiian group of islands, where it is one of the most common 

 species. At Oaliu, we found them generally about the gigantic Lohe- 

 lias which characterize the botany of that island. They extract their 

 food from the flowers of the Lobelia, for which the singularly formed 

 bill is admirably adapted. The red feathers of this species were 

 usually selected for the ornamental figures on the capes and robes of 

 the ancient Hawaiians, but, by reason of their abundance, were not so 

 highly valued as those of the Oo." 



7. Genus HEMIGNATHUS, Liditcmtem. 

 1. Hemignathus? obscurus {Gmelin). 



Certhia ohscura, G-M. Sjst. Nat. I, p. 470 (1788). 



Aud. and Vieill. Ois. Dor. II, PI. LIII ; Lath. Gen. Syn. I, PI. 

 XXXIII, fig. 1. 



A single specimen, and the only one that we have ever seen which 

 is clearly the species described and figured by the authors above 

 referred to, is in the collection of the Expedition. Though with a 

 long, gradually curved bill, more as represented in the plate of Aud. 

 and Vieill. than in that of Lath., as above, and Avith the inferior man- 

 dible but little shorter than the superior, this bird appears to us to 

 present very much the characters of Hemignathus. The color, too, is 

 nearly the same. 



The shape of the bill in this bird is different from that in the genus 

 Drepanis [D. coccinea and D. sanguinea). It either forms a distinct 

 genus, or belongs to the genus Hemignathus, in our opinion to the lat- 

 ter; and the half-billed or Hemignathous character appears to us to be 

 not completely characteristic. 



