220 



AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN, ETC. 



There is a big bunch of bright yellow axillary tufts, which in some specimens seems to 

 part naturally into two tufts, as Mr. Keulemans has shown on the Plate l . Under tail- 

 coverts bright yellow. Central pairs of rectrices black. Outermost pair of rectrices 

 with the basal half of the inner webs black, the other half white ; outer webs white, 

 strongly washed with yellow, pure yellow at base ; next pair similar, but the white tip 

 smaller, and with a conspicuous broad black shaft-stripe near the tip, this latter character 

 less distinct in the outermost pair. Next pair (third from outside) black, with a broad 

 bright yellow edge to the basal part of the outer webs ; rest uniform black. Central 

 pair greatly elongated and twisted round at the tip. Iris reddish brown ; bill and feet 

 black. Total length 12 to 13 inches and even more, wing 4*8 to 51 (not 5 95, as 

 Wilson says), tail 75 to 7 95, lateral tail-feather about 4 5 to 49 inches shorter, 

 culmen 115 to 128, tarsus 1*4 to 1*6. 



Adult female. Similar to the male in colour, but much smaller, and with the central pair of 

 rectrices less elongated, less pointed, and not distinctly twisted. Cheeks and ear-coverts, 

 or only the latter, more or less washed with pale golden yellow. Total length about 

 9 to 9 5 inches, wing 39 to 4 3, tail about 5*3 to 5 4, culmen 95 to 125. 



The young birds have no yellow tufts beneath the wings. 



The Plate of the male of this species in this book shows two separate yellow pectoral tufts. 

 This is not quite correct, but perhaps less the fault of the artist than of myself, as the 

 specimen from which the figure was delineated showed two distinct tufts. There are 

 also several other specimens before me in which the yellow tufts part very naturally in 

 tAvo. I am also afraid that the bird in sitting quietly on a twig cannot show the tufts as 

 they appear in the Plate. If this is a mistake, however, it originated from the wish of 

 the artist to show all the prominent peculiarities of the species to perfection. 



This beautiful bird is, as Mr. Scott Wilson justly says, " perhaps the best known species both 

 to natives and white inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands ; for it was principally from the 

 yellow feathers that grow beneath its wings, together with the still more beautiful and 

 similarly coloured under tail-coverts of the now extinct 2 Drejmnis pacifica, that the state- 

 robes of the princes were fabricated. It was the privilege of those classes alone to wear 

 them ; nor can it be denied that they formed a becoming and magnificent garb, as beautiful 

 as anything that the triumphs of civilized art can now produce." Eor further most inter- 

 esting accounts of the garbs made of the feathers of these birds, and their history, my readers 

 may refer to "Wilson's book, /. c. 



Mr. Scott Wilson tells us that the O-o extracts the nectar with its long tubular tongue 

 from the flowers of the Ohia or from the great tree-lobelia, and that he also saw it feeding on 

 bananas. " Their cry," says Wilson, " is somewhat harsh, and resembles the sound of the 

 letter O repeated twice, with a well-marked interval. The yellow axillary tufts are very 

 conspicuous when this bird is on the wing, and its dipping mode of flight somewhat resembles 



1 These tufts consist of about 10 to 20 feathers, not only of L2, 

 - See my account of the Mamo. — \Y. It. 



