It 



HISTORY 



OF 



THE BIRDS 



OF 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



THE GENUS PH^ORNIS. 



The type of this exclusive Hawaiian genus (so far as at present known) is the Muscieapa 

 ohscura of Gmelin. Peale and Cassin placed this bird in an American genus which belonged 

 to the Tyrannidce, with which it is in no way connected. Sclater rightly established for 

 it a new genus, Phceornis, placing it among the Muscicapidas. There is indeed much 

 in the external appearance of Phceornis to justify this position, and the recent biological 

 notes of Perkins (' Ibis,' 1893, p. 110) are much in favour of it. There is, on the other hand, 

 the truly Turdine foot, and the tarsus with its unbroken lamina}, the powerful song, and the 

 food, which consists of fruits and insects, as the observations of Perkins and Palmer show 

 (though not of fruits alone as Dr. Gadow says), which seem to prove its Turdine relations. 

 Moreover, many anatomical details, carefully pointed out by Dr. Gadow in 'Aves Haw^aiienses,' 

 pt. ii., are in favour of its Turdine relationship. The relation to the Prionojridce, suggested 

 by Sharpe in the ' Catalogue of Birds,' has very little to commend it, especially since that 

 author no longer upholds the family Prionojridcv, as he shows in a footnote on p. 86 of his 

 excellent 'Review of recent Attempts to Classify Birds ' (1891). His opinion that some of 

 the so-called Prionopidce might be united with the Flycatchers, while others might belong 

 to the Laniida?, but that more and closer investigations of the subject arc needed, seems 

 to be very just. 



Unfortunately none of the recent explorers have found the nest and eggs of Phceornis, 

 by means of wdiich might be shown its true place in the system. 



K 



