AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN, ETC. 



179 



37. LOXOPS C^RULEIROSTRIS (Wilson). 



GREEN AKAKANE. 



Chrysomitridops cceruleirostris, Scott Wilson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1889, p. 445; id. & Evans, Aves Hawaiienses, 

 part i. (Dec. 1890). 



Adult male. Yellowish olive-green above, mueh lighter and more yellow on the rump; a 

 more or less ill-defined gamboge-yellow patch on the crown j lores black, this colour 

 meeting on the forehead, and very narrowly on the chin; wing-quills brownish black, 

 margined with olive-green on the outer webs, and with greyish white on the inner webs. 

 Under surface greenish yellow ; rectrices brownish black, bordered with olive-green, and 

 with a wash of that colour on the two middle ones (between Ridgway's gamboge-yellow 

 and olive-yellow, on plate vi.), washed with greenish along the sides of the body. Under 

 wing-coverts lemon-yellow ; iris dark brown ; maxilla and mandible greyish blue, tipped 

 with brown ; legs and feet blackish brow r n. Total length, as measured in the flesh by 

 the collector, about 5 inches, and about 4J as measured from the skins before me. Wing 

 2-5 to 2-6 inches, tail 2 to 215, tarsus 075, culmen 0'44 to 0'46. 



J d ult female. Most of the females before me (about a dozen) are less brightly coloured 

 above, the yellow patch on the crown is not so w r ell defined, and the wing is a feAV milli- 

 metres shorter ; but some males, probably younger ones, are quite similar, and there is 

 one adult female which cannot be distinguished from the males. About this latter 

 specimen (no. 943) there seems to be no mistake, as Palmer expressly says in his diary : — 

 " You will observe that this bird has a yellow head like the males, but my assistant 

 dissected it carefully and found that the ovaries were enlarged, and there could not be 

 any doubt whatever that it was a female." One or two other birds marked " female " 

 are hardly different from that specimen. 



Mr. Scott Wilson discovered this species in October 1S88 in the district of Waimea, in 

 Kauai, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, and he believes it to be a rare bird. 



Palmer sent me about 30 specimens from the mountains of Kauai, but being there 

 collecting chiefly from December to February it seems he arrived at an unfortunate season 

 for these birds, as the majority are in much abraded plumage. 



They were not met in the valleys, but only at a considerable height in the mountains ; 

 only once were they observed close to Makaweli at low elevations. They were generally 



2 c 



