BIRDS OF LAYSAN AND THE LEEWARD ISLANDS. 
805 
The Telespiza is the best songster on the island, and a number were captured by officers and seamen 
of the Albatross for cage birds. One which was kept in the laboratory on board made such good use of 
his vocal powers that it was sometimes necessary to give him more space on deck for the performance. 
The favorite nesting site is in the middle of a big tussock of grass, somewhat nearer the ground 
than the situations of the Himatione and Acrocephalus nests. The species also builds in chenopodium 
bushes. We found several nests in grass clumps bordering the open near the lagoon — a location very 
popular with both himationes and miller-birds — and in each case the nest was wedged in the center of 
the tussock, well hidden by the tall grass stems. It is made of rootlets, twigs, and coarse grass, and 
the whole structure is rather loosely put together. The shallow cup is 2f inches in diameter and is 
lined with shredded grass. 
Three eggs are laid, though we found some nests with incomplete sets of two. All were fresh. 
A rather large specimen measures 24 by 18 millimeters. It is somewhat bluntly ovate, of a lusterless 
white, with small blotches and spots of light sepia and lilac gray, crowded toward the blunt end and 
very sparingly present on the acute half. Another egg of the same set of three is smaller, measuring 
22.5 by 17,5 millimeters. The third egg is a trifle smaller still, and has the spotting distributed evenly 
over the whole surface. An example from a set of two is plentifully blotched with lilac gray at the 
blunt end and sparsely spotted with dark Prout’s brown, giving it a rather unusual appearance. 
Some eggs have the spots relatively large (2 millimeters in diameter); in others they are very small. 
Occasionally an egg presents at the blunt end one or two dark lines. There is great variation in size 
and color, and some eggs are as small as 21 by 15 millimeters. 
We collected 24 individuals of this species. The adult and subadult plumages are quite different, 
and led Mr. Walter* Rothschild to describe the fully matured bird as Telespiza flavissima. Eor 
descriptions of this species see any of the works cited in the introduction, especially the “Avifauna 
of Laysan,” which gives excellent colored plates of both adult ( sub nomine “ flavissima ”) and 
“immature ” plumages (s. n. “ cantans"). Of the 24 specimens 11 are adult males in the bright yellow 
plumage, with back not streaked. One adult male is about midway between the two plumages, having 
assumed the “yellow stage,” except on back, wings, and tail. Five other males are in the immature 
streaked plumage, but one is much yellower than the others. All these five are much more worn 
than birds in the yellow plumage. All the sitting birds I noted were in streaked dress, similar to 
the one shown in the photograph. (Figs. 49, 50.) 
Of seven females three are in the immature streaked stage and are all a trifle paler over the yellow 
area than males in a similar stage. The other four are halfway between the “adult” and the 
“immature” stages. Had not Mr. Rothschild expressly stated that the sexes are alike in fully adult 
plumage, I would have considered three of these birds in the final plumage. The back is streaked 
like the immature males and top of head to less extent. The yellow of rest of head, and breast, which 
is not streaked, is more greenish than that of the adult male and less extended ' over abdomen and 
flanks. The flanks are light brownish and sparsely streaked. If the adult female is exactly like the 
male, these four specimens form a beautiful connecting link between the two plumages. We collected 
no females similar to the adult males. I believe the ju venal plumage is worn a year, till after the first 
nesting season, when the intermediate phase is assumed. Just how long that is worn is hard to tell, 
but I doubt if the fully adult plumage is gained till the bird is in its third year. 
SYLV11D/E. 
Acrocephalus familiaris. Miller Bird. 
Tartare familiaris Rothschild, Annals and Magazine Nat. Hist., x, 1892, p. 109. 
The warbler is locally known as the miller bird on account of its fondness for “millers,” or grayish 
brown moths, which abound on Laysan. It is peculiar to Laysan Island, and singularly enough the 
genus is not found in the Hawaiian group proper, to the eastward. 
Acrocephalus “comprises a well-marked group of birds familiarly known as Reed- Warblers, and is 
distinguished by the possession of a very minute bastard primary and a moderately rounded tail. 
The bastard primary is so minute that in adult birds it does not usually extend as far as the primary 
coverts. In birds of the year, and in one or two species slightly aberrant in this respect, it is usually 
somewhat longer, occasionally extending beyond them. * * * The bill is typically large. 
