174 



AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN, ETC. 



however, instances enough where it takes birds several years to assume the perfect 

 plumage of the adult male. 



This species can he distinguished hy the colour of the adult male, and none of the inter- 

 mediate plumages are quite similar to any of the intermediate stages of Loxops coccinea. 

 The adult female is a good deal darker than the female of the latter species. Structural 

 differences there are none, and even the size is about the same. 



Palmer discovered this sj)ecies in the hills of Maui, whence he sent a fair series, though 

 it was not very numerous. 



He saw it mostly creeping about among the leaves of the Ohia-trees, feeding on small 

 insects and larvae. In its manners it was like its congener L. coccinca of Hawaii, hut its 

 note was lower and more plaintive. It was not at all shy. The stomachs were generally 

 full of small heetles and other insects. 



Mr. Scott Wilson l , in part iv. of * Aves Hawaiienses,' describes this species as 

 " Himatione aureaJ.' Mr. Wilson has thus placed the three forms of the genus Loxops 

 known to hirn at the time under three different generic names— the fourth (L. rufa of Oalm) 

 having heen united by him with L. coccinea. Although such a mistake was at the time 

 pardonable if descriptions only of them were at hand, it is less so when examining specimens. 

 Yet Mr. Wilson had before him some Loxops coccinca, some Loxops cceruleirostris (for 

 which he created the genus Chrysomitridops), and some Maui skins collected by Dr. Finsch. 

 These were lent to him by the authorities of the Berlin Museum, and, after having examined 

 them, he declared " that they undoubtedly belong to Himatione" Dr. Pinsch quite properly 

 referred the Maui birds to the genus Loxops (or, as he called it, Hypoloxias), but unfortu- 

 nately employed Dole's name " Drepanis aurea" for them. This name (aurea) has been 

 accepted by Wilson ; but this is an extraordinary nomenclatorial proceeding, as it is perfectly 

 clear that Finsch did not mean to create the name cured, but united his Maui birds with 

 Dole's aurea, which was, however, given to Hawaiian specimens, and is thus to be placed as 

 a synonym to L. coccinea. There is thus no " Hypoloxias aurea, Einseh," but only a 

 " Hypoloxias a area (Dole)." In 1893 I described the Maui form as Loxops ochraeea. There 

 is therefore no u nomenclatorial puzzle " at all about this bird, and, according to all ancient 

 and modern rules of nomenclature, the name ochraeea must be accepted for the Maui form. 

 Yet Mr. Wilson accepts the name " aurea," writing as follows : — " This term originally 

 appearing in connexion with Drepanis was a wholly inaccurate generic assignment, and 

 justice to the perspicuity of the distinguished ornithologist (Finsch) demands that his name 

 should not be set aside. So far as practice is concerned no confusion is likely to follow from 

 maintaining the term aurea in Dr. Einsch's sense ; and, as Mr. Rothschild was neither the 

 discoverer nor the first descriher of the species, and could not have known, except from my 

 work, what the ' Drepanis aurea ' really Avas, there seems no need to treat his name for the 

 Maui bird otherwise than according to the strictest knv, which to me does not appear to 

 require the adoption of his subsequently conferred designation of ochraeea? Mr. Wilson 

 would thus justify the use of one and the same specific term twice in one genus, if for the 



1 I say purposely Mr. Scott Wilson, and not Messrs. Wilson and Evans, as the author always speaks of " 1 " and 

 not of " we." 



