AVIFAUNA OF LAY SAN, ETC. 



99 



five weeks in June in Kona, where it frequents the Koa trees alone, running up their 

 great smooth trunks and along their limbs in search of insects. In the mamane woods 

 near Mana I subsequently found it in considerable numbers in the month of January, when 

 these trees are in full flower, resembling laburnums with their golden clusters. Its 

 movements are very rapid, and the quickness with which it slips from one side of a limb 

 to the other is surprising." 



Perkins's description of the habits of this bird is published in the 6 Ibis,' 1893, 

 pp. 100, 107. His observations agree mainly with Palmer's, and I think it therefore 

 better to give Perkins's words almost in full. He writes :— " It is a common bird from 

 rather below 1000 feet to some hundreds of feet above that altitude, and most probably 

 much higher still. It is most partial to the larger acacias, running up and down the 

 limbs with equal ease, and also both on the upper and lower surfaces of the branches. 

 It was on the 11th of July that I first saw one, a fine bright male, feeding. When I 

 first caught sight of it, it was some ten yards off ; but I easily got closer without scaring it 

 in the slightest. Being bare-footed and bare-legged at the time, and the ground being 

 overgrown with a prickly introduced thistle, after following it for half an hour I found my 

 feet somewhat painful. Meanwhile the bird kept straying over the fallen trunks turning 

 its head, now right, now left, in its desire for food. In this manner it searched both sides of 

 the tree in one journey without retracing its steps. And this is how it used its bill: — The 

 upper mandible it plunges into the small holes or cracks of the wood, while the lower presses 

 on the surface of the bark. By this means, I imagine, it gets a considerable leverage to help 

 it in opening out the burrows of the insects. In the same way it thrusts its upper bill under 

 the loose bark, resting the lower one on the surface, and in this way strips the bark off. The 

 upper mandible, though so thin, is very strong and somewhat flexible ; while the curve of the 

 bill follows the curve of the burrow, for insects nearly always burrow more or less in a 

 curve. Should the curve of the burroAV not agree with the curve of the bill, the difficulty is 

 overcome both by the slight flexibility of the beak and by the wonderful flexibility of the 

 bird's neck, which it twists round so as to bring the curve of the bill to follow that of the 

 burrow. In this manner it gets out its prey, being largely aided by the long tongue, which 

 is as long as the upper beak. Every now and then it gives several blows to the trunk, the 

 sound of which may be heard at a considerable distance, sometimes, I think, to frighten out 

 its prey to the entrance of the burrow, sometimes for the purpose of actually breaking the 



wood The blows that it gives to the trunk and branches are dealt with great vigour and 



with the beak wide agape, so that the points of both mandibles come in contact with the 



surface Into these blows it throws its whole weight, swinging backwards from the thighs 



to renew each stroke. In some cases at least these blows are for the purpose of driving out 

 insects, or at any rate have that result ; for several times I saw the bird after a stroke make a 

 sudden dart, sometimes even taking an insect on the wing, and, after swallowing it, return 

 again to its labour. Its song is short but rather pleasing, and, as one would expect from its 

 habits, full of life and energy." 



