302 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part II. 



Coming now to the Passeres, or true perching birds, we find 

 sixteen species, all pecuUar, belonging to ten genera, all but one 

 of which are also peculiar. The following is a list of these 

 extremely interesting birds : — 



L MusciCAPiDiE (Flycatchers). 



1. Chasiempis sandvichensis. 



2. Phceornis ohscura. 



II. Meltphagid^ (Honeysuckers.) 



3. Mohoa nohilis. 



4. „ braccata. 



5. ,j apical'is. 



6. Chcctoptila angustipluma. 



III. Drepanidid^. 



7. Drepanis coccinea. 



8. „ rosea. 



9. ,, flava. 



10. san guinea. 



T>Ye^d,md.\^dd— continued. 



11. Hemignathus olivaceus. 



12. ,, obscurus. 



13. „ lucid us. 



14. Loxops coccinea. 



15. , , aurea. 



16. Loxio'ides bailloni. 



17. Ps'ittirostra psittacea. 



18. Fringilla anna (recently de- 



scribed, perhaps belongs also 

 to this group). 



lY. CoRViD^ (Crows). 



19. Corvus hawaiensis . 



Taking the above in the order here given, we have, first, two 

 peculiar genera of flycatchers, a family confined to the Old 

 World, but extending over the Pacific as far as the Marquesas 

 Islands. Next we have two peculiar genera (with four species) 

 of honeysuckers, a family confined to the Australian region, and 

 also ranging over all the Pacific Islands to the Marquesas. We 

 now come to the most important group of birds in the Sandwich 

 Islands, comprising five peculiar genera, and eleven or twelve 

 species, which are believed to form a peculiar family allied to the 

 Oriental flower-peckers (Diceidse), and perhaps remotely to the 

 American greenlets (Yireonidse), or tanagers (Tanagridse). They 

 possess singularly varied beaks, some having this organ much 

 thickened like those of finches, to which family some of 

 them have been supposed to belong. In any case they form a 

 most peculiar group, and cannot be associated with any other 

 known birds. The last species, and the only one not belonging 

 to a peculiar genus, is the Hawaiian crow, belonging to the almost 

 universally distributed genus Corvus. 



On the whole, the affinities of these birds are, as might be 



