AVIFAUNA OF LATSAN, ETC. 



173 



35. LOXOPS OCHRACEA. 



OCIIIIACEOUS AKAKANE. 



Bypoloxias aurea (errore !, non Drepanis aurea, Dole), Finsch, Ibis, 1880, p. 80 (Maui; descr.). 

 Loocops aurea, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. x. p. 50 (1885) (copied from Finsch. Locality « Sandwich 

 Islands"). 



Loxops ochracea, Rothschild, Ibis, 1893, pp. 112 (Maui), 281 (note on name and synonymy). 

 Himatione aurea (errore!, non Drepania aurea, Dole), Wilson & Evans, Aves Hawaiienses, pt. iv. (1893). 

 Lo.rops aurea, Perkins, Ibis, 1895, p. 121 (habits) ; Wilson & Evans, Aves Hawaiienses, pt. vi. (1896). 



Adult male. Dark orange ochraceous above and below, brighter and more yellowish 

 towards the rump and upper tail-coverts above and towards the vent and under tail- 

 coverts below. Wing-quills blackish dusky, outer webs bordered with orange-yellow, 

 inner webs with pale cinereous. liectrices deep dusky brown, outer webs edged with 

 orange-yellow. Under wing-eo verts yellowish. Iris dark hazel; beak slate-blue, 

 tip dark brown. Tarsi and toes greyish brown. Size not perceptibly different 

 from that of L. cocclnea. Wing 245 to 254 inches, tail 1'9 to 2"2, culmen 0'17 

 to 0*49, tarsus OS. 



Other males shot at the same time of the year are wax-yellow or gallstone-yellow. I 

 am inclined to think that they are not so old as the orange-ochraceous ones, but 

 Mr. Perkins, although admitting " occasional intermediate forms," is of opinion that the 

 male is dimorphic in colour. 



Adult female. Above dark green, lighter and more yellowish green on the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts. Wings and tail dusky blackish, edged with yellowish green on the outer 

 webs of the feathers. Below dull dirty yellow, washed with olive along the sides of 

 the body. 



Young males resemble the female, but between the first olive-greenish plumage and the 

 ochraceous garb of the adult males some apparently intermediate stages occur, some 

 being wax-yellow (Eidgway, Nomencl. Col. pi. vi. fig. 7), others very nearly gallstone- 

 yellow (pi. v. fig. 6). The adult male is either dimorphic, as explained by Mr. Perkins, 

 or the plumage would seem to change colour, for if the colour of the adult male is 

 assumed by moult alone, it would take several moults to complete it. There are, 



2 b 2 



