131 



AVIFAUNA OF LAWS AX, ETC. 



This bird has been known since the earliest days of Hawaiian ornithology, and for a long 

 time was believed to be the female of the red llimatione (see synonymy). 



It is restricted to the island of Hawaii, though very closely allied forms inhabit the other 

 islands. 



Perkins ('Ibis,' 1893) says "llimatione vircns is abundant in Kona, and particularly in 

 the higher forest. However, it ranges down in some numbers even as low as 1100 to 

 1500 feet. They are chiefly insectivorous, feeding on lepidopterous larvsc and other insects, 

 but are in places very partial to the Lehua-flowers. On the rough lava, on which this live 

 grows ahundantly, at the foot of the Mauna Hualalai, where the mountain rises suddenly 

 from the high table-land, I frequently observed them sucking the honey of these blossoms, 

 and, in company with llimatione sanguined, on the same tree, certainly as high as 7000 feet 

 up that mountain— at an altitude where in the morning the ground was covered witli 

 hoar-frost." 



Palmer's notes declare that the Amakihi is found all over the island, but most numerous 

 in the Kona districts, S.W. and W. of the island, in Hamakua, N.E., and in Hilo and Puna 

 districts. It ranges from 1000 feet above the sea to the uppermost forest regions, about 

 10,000 feet high. 



It is generally seen searching for its food amongst the smaller branches and leaves, 

 and sucking nectar from various flowers, and even feeding on " Cape gooseberries." 



Palmer says it is one of the commonest birds of Hawaii and that he saw it quite low 

 near the sea and up as high as he had been, i. e. about 9000 feet. It has a chirping call-note, 

 not unlike that of a Canary-bird, and rather a sweet kind of warbling song of several notes. 

 Palmer calls it active in its movements, very swift in flight, and says it " seems to alight all 

 of a sudden without lessening its speed beforehand." On May the 5th one w^as seen carrying 

 moss or some other green material as if for building a nest, On May the 17th three nests 

 were found, but all empty. They were "much like the one received from Mr. Baldwin, and 

 were outside built of sticks, then of moss, and lined with very fine roots, open above and 

 about inches in diameter." 



Palmer received a nest of Chlorodrexmnis virens from Mr. Baldwin. It is a roundish 

 structure of grass, twigs, roots, and moss, lined with finer roots and hairs. It seems to be 

 somewhat flattened, and is certainly not a deep cup like that of Chasiempis ; but its exact 

 shape and size cannot be stated with certainty, as the nest is no longer on the branch (the only 

 way nests should be collected if possible) and was foolishly pressed into a small box. 



Perkins describes the nest as being lined with roots, and with fruit-capsules of the 

 " poha," dry and more or less skeletonized, woven in the outside. 



The two eggs sent by Palmer are ovate in shape and measure 19'5xll'5 millimetres 

 each. They are white, marked with brown blotches and spots, and some lilac-grey paler 

 underlying patches, the brown as well as the greyish patches forming a wide ring near the 

 broad end, more distinct in one than in the other. If held against the light they shine 

 through white with a faint tinge of greenish yellow. The eggs sent by Palmer agree fully 

 with those figured by Wilson, but less with the figures in the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological 

 Society, which seem to be somewdiat roughly executed. Mr. Wilson also figured a nest. 



