EXTRACTIONS FROM THE UNPUBLISHED SPECIES ACCOUNTS OF A. WETMORE 
TEIE3PIZA 'ULTIMA 
Nihoa Island, June 11-16, 1923 , There are fully 800 of these finches on the 
island; at the present time they have finished breeding and adults are in 
molt. - The oung birds in their streamed plumage are everywhere in evidence but 
adults are shyer and more frequently remain hidden. The finches range to the 
summits of the highest peaks but are most abundant in the lower stretches of the 
gulches especially where tiny pools of water are found in depressions in the 
rock floor of the valleys. Dozens congregate here in the Chinopodium bushes 
where they rest quietly or clamber about their total number unsuspected until 
one tramps through the courts. They are still in little family parties, some 
of them only recently from the nest. Often fifty were found about one water 
hole. Adults were silent save for a chirping note but young frequently uttered a 
low twittering song' that while not equal to the sounds produced by the adult 
Laysan bird was very pleasing. 
These little finches were tame and came without fear about our camp 
peering curiously at strange paraphenalia and picking and pulling at ropes and 
strings. Adults and young relished eggs of other birds and literally thousands 
of tern, shearwater, and petrel eggs with the sides cut open by the finches lay 
about. Their flight was strong and on the ground they hopped. 
I found one nest that can have belonged to no other species, in a slight .. 
cavity under a ledge at the summit of a cliff 500 feet high. The structure 
was a cup of fine grasses and stems of weeds. The rim and the rock about were 
foul with the excrement of the young, the filthy condition reminding one strongly 
of the nest of the House finch. 
The bill in this species is brown, paler below. The small size of the eye 
cavity suggests the condition found in goldfinches and siskins. 
