31 



DREPANIS TEMM. 



Drepanis Temminck, Man. d'Orn. Ed. II, I p. LXXXVI (1820 — " Especes: Certhia pacifica 

 — obscura — vestiaria et probablement falcata, que je n'ai pas vu." Type by 

 elimination : Drepanis pacifica. 



THE name Drepanis is now restricted to the practically extinct "Mamo" 

 of the natives of the Sandwich Islands. Drepanis pacifica has a very 

 striking black and yellow colouration ; the somewhat loose-webbed 

 under tail-coverts cover about three-quarters of the tail. The bill is long, 

 curved, non-serrated, the upper mandible a few millimetres longer than the 

 lower jaw. Nostrils large, covered by an operculum. First primary rudi- 

 mentary, hidden by its covert. There is a silky, soft and fluffy axillary patch 

 of feathers. The tail is slightly rounded. The metatarsus is covered with 

 large, partly fused scutes. 



Only one species known. 



DREPANIS PACIFICA <gm.) 



Great Hook-billed Creeper Latham, Gen. Synops. I p. 703 (1782). 

 Certhia pacifica Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I p. 470 (1788 — ex Latham). 



BOTH Mr. Scott Wilson and myself have at length discussed this beautiful 

 bird in our books on the Hawaiian Avifauna. Of the actual status of 

 this bird in former times we know nothing. Latham described it first 

 (Gmelin named this species after Latham's description) from a pair in the 

 Leverian collection, which is now preserved in the Vienna Museum. About 

 half a century ago several specimens were collected by the late W. Mills near 

 Hilo, on the island of Hawaii, the only island where it existed. Nothing certain 

 was heard of the "Mamo" until, in 1892, my collector Henry Palmer obtained 

 a fine male, which was caught before his eyes by a native birdcatcher. In 

 July, 1898, Mr. H. W. Henshaw saw "at least a pair, possibly a whole family," 

 in the woods of Kaumana, and in 1899 a native heard the, to him, well-known 

 call near the same place. This brings the existence of the Mamo down to the 

 year 1898 or 1899. In view of the futile efforts of Messrs. Henry Palmer, 



