]r>l AVIFAUNA OF LATSAN, ETC. 



Adult male. Above and below generally bright vermilion, deepest on the breast and abdomen, 

 distinctly lighter on the top of the head and on the throat. The bases of the feathers on 

 the top of the head are nearly quite, those of the feathers on the throat pure white, while 

 those of the other parts have blackish-grey bases and a lighter whitish shade along the 

 shaft and before the red tip. Wings and tail black, in freshly-moulted specimens a 

 narrow brown margin is obvious on some of the primaries. Primary-coverts black ; 

 smaller wing-coverts red ; greater black, with deep red edgings near the tip on the outer 

 web, not obvious if the birds are in abraded plumage. The innermost (smallest) secondary 

 is white, the next one blackish, with the outer web ashy grey or ashy brown. Under 

 wing-coverts and axillaries white, with a faint rosy tint, which is sometimes nearly 

 absent. Iris dark hazel. Bill red, a little darker on the upperside. Peet vermilion-red 

 in life, whitish in skin. Total length nearly 6 inches, wing 32 to 3*4, tail 2 25 to 23, 

 culmen 115 to 1-25, tarsus 1, bill from gape to tip 95 to 1. 



Adult female. The female does not (according to the series examined by me) differ from the 

 male in colour in any constant or obvious way, but it is distinctly smaller, the wing 

 measuring only 2"98 to 3"08, the culmen about 1 to 115 inches. 



The above-stated facts and measurements are based on a material of over thirty sexeel adult 

 birds, less than one-third of which are females. The average of the length of the wing- 

 in the male is 325, and only one male from Molokai measures 3 4 inches. The birds 

 from the various islands are not different. 



Young birds are quite different in colour. The feathers above and below are brownish orange 

 or olivaceous orange, those above with blackish spots at the tip, those on the throat and 

 breast similar, while those of the abdomen are not so distinctly spotted at the tip. The 

 red feathers appear here and there generally, if not always, first on the head and breast, 

 and get more and more plentiful as the moult advances ; but there are also, in several 

 of my specimens, orange-brown feathers that are washed with scarlet-vermilion, as if the 

 red colour was overspreading the old feathers together with the moult. A scries of very 

 instructive figures of immature birds are given in Mr. Scott Wilson's book. 



In the young bird the iris is hazel ; the upper mandible is brown on the culmen, rose-coloured 

 on the edges; the lower mandible tipped with brown, reddish at base; tarsi and toes 

 brown, soles orange. 



This species, whic h v>as first described by Professor Forster of Cassel, is generally distributed 

 over the various Hawaiian islands, and no constant differences can be traced between the 

 birds from the difierent islands. They inhabit all wooded regions, from the lower hills up to 

 8000 feet or more. Their food consists of nectar, taken lrom various flowers, and in the 

 higher situations almost entirely from the Mamane, and also of insects. They have a great 

 variety of notes, their call-note being a clear, powerful, and fiute-like whistle, besides which 

 they have a warbling song of many notes, and when Palmer saw one chase an Amakihi 

 {Chlorodrepams) it uttered a hissing sound. 



Haidly anything is known about the breeding-habits. Wilson found a nest, which 



