AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN, ETC. 



227 



50. MO HO BRACCATUS, Cass. 



Merops fasciculatus 7, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 275 (1790). 



Yellow-tufted Bee-eater var. B, Lath. Suppl. ii. p. 149 (1801). 



? Certhia pacrfica, Peale (nec Gmelin), U.S. Expl. Exp., Birds, p. 149 (1848). 



Mohoa fasciculata ? , Reichenb. Handb. spec. Orn. ii. p. 33, pi. 614. fig. 4099 (1853). 



Moho[a-\ braccata, Cass. Proc. Ac. N. S. Philad. 1855, p. 440; id. U.S. Expl. Exp., Mamm. & Orn. p. 172 



(1858) ; Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isls. p. 9 (1859) ; id. Hand-l. i. p. 114 (1869) ; Dole, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. 



1869, p. 296; id. Hawaiian Alman. 1879, p. 46 ; Scl. Ibis, 1871, pp.358, 360; 1879, p. 92; Pelz. 



J. f. O. 1872, p. 26; id. Ibis, 1873, p. 21 ; Wallace, Island Life, p. 297 (1881) ; Stejn. Proc. U.S. Nat. 



Mus. 1887, p. 100. (Most authors spelt the name Moho, not Mohoa.) 

 Acrulocercus braccatus, Wilson & Evans, Aves Ilawaiienses, pt. i. text & plate (1890); Gadow, op. cit 



pt. ii. p. 7 (structure) (1891) (partim) (Gadow, in the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, ix. 



p. 284, included M. braccatus in the synonyms of M. nobilis) ; Meyer, Vogelskelet. iii. p. 37, pi. clxiv. 



(1892). 



Adult male. Head above black with a faint gloss, the feathers ashy grey along the shaft, 

 except at the tip, and a few bristly feathers right and left on the forehead ashy white. 

 Some small whitish bristly feathers over the eye like the remains of a superciliary 

 stripe; lores deep black, without any gloss. Feathers of the throat and fore-neck black, 

 with a whitish bar before the tip. Feathers of the back and abdomen dark smoky 

 brown, with narrow greyish shaft-lines, those of the vent and under tail-coverts rufous 

 brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts uniform brown. Wings and tail-feathers uniform 

 black, the former inwardly bordered with ashy greyish. Edge of the wing and under 

 wing-coverts pure white. Axillary tufts not conspicuously developed, and of a brown 

 colour ; tibia? golden yellow. Iris yellowish white. Bill and feet black with a greyish 

 tinge. Soles pale yellow. (In young birds the iris is more greyish.) Total length 

 about 75 to 8-5 inches, wing 3'8 to 4*1, tail 3-5 to 4 (20 adult males measured), 

 culmen 105 to 1'16 (hut none at all reaching up to 15, as Wilson gives), tarsus T05 

 to 114. 



Adult female. Entirely similar to the male in colour (the difference of the colour of the 

 throat mentioned in Scott Wilson's book does not hold good), but a little smaller. Wing 

 3-5 to 3 7 inches. 



Young birds differ from the adults in having the shaft-lines of the feathers of the back and 

 abdomen less developed and almost imperceptible, in having the abdomen greyish olive, 

 and the tibia? blackish instead of yellow. 



Hob. Kauai. 



2 i 



