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THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 124, No. 4, December 2012 
G Kauai 
re,,pi-.I i,. '" e , map " ' h . C 1 lawauan ,sIands shovvin 8 ,hc known distrihution of the genus Ciridops. Stars indicate the 
? h i n T C Were lukcn - whercas question marks represent dubious records-that in the 
indicate wh r 't" | ( ; ! i,nd thal in ,he caM is ,he ° oki,,i * a <™ Wilson and Evans 1893). Solid circles 
ontn ckc is inTltaTe £ T T C °" r0COycred (,hal <>ahu includes several separate but adjacent sites): 
open circles indicate lossil sites with small passerines but lacking remains of Ciridops. 
no doubt of its identity" (Wilson and Evans, 
1893: 23). Jt is uncertain why Perkins (1903: 405) 
icgatded Ciridops to have been “widely distrib¬ 
uted on the island of Hawaii... and to have 
inhabited both the Kona and Hilo districts as well 
as the Kohala mountains." I know of no other 
information concerning Ciridops in the Kona 
District. Perhaps Perkins was told that by a local 
source that he failed to mention or surmised a 
wider range based on the distribution of Pritch- 
ardia, which he noted had persisted into the late 
19th century "in the dense forests above Hilo.” 
and “in the Kohala mountains and the Kona 
district." There is no historic record of Ciridops 
from the Kona District, where several species of 
birds were last known before becoming extinct 
(e.g.. Olson 1999a). Important fossils of passer¬ 
ines have been discovered in lava tubes on Hawaii 
H f*mgnaihus vorpalis, James and Olson 
2003). but the fossil record on that island is 
sporadic and incomplete and many historically 
known birds have not yet been found as fossils 
including Ciridops. 
The accounts of Munro (1892) and Palnu 
(Rothschild 1893) describe searching for Ciridon 
I” the Kohala Mountains. At the place where th 
last specimen had been taken shortly before b 
nat.ve hunters. Palmer noted only eight Pritch 
auha palms, and where four of them grev 
together was the spot the last Ciridops was found 
(Rothschild 1893: Diary 7). They made an 
unsuccessful search for the bird at elevations 
above this point and at 1,200 m and above 
conditions were described as “almost living in the 
water because of heavy rain and the tempera¬ 
tures were so low that they gave up the pursuit 
(Rothschild 1893: Diary 7). Thus, perhaps, arose 
the misperception thal Ciridops anna was an 
inhabitant of “montane forest" (e.g., AOU 1998: 
677). The cold, wet Kohala Mountains were 
probably submarginal habitat for Ciridops at best, 
much as the last few struggling individuals of 
MeUimpmsops pliaeosorna passed out of their 
miserable existence in the dank slopes of 
windward Haleakala on Maui, when the fossil 
record shows that the species throve at lower 
elevations on the drier leeward slope of the 
mountain. 
In contrast with Hawaii, the fossil record on 
Maui is extensive and reasonably comprehensive 
as tar as it goes; yet no fossils’ of Ciridops are 
known (James and Olson 1991). This may. 
however, reflect the tact thal no productive fossil 
sites have yet been found in the lowlands of 
Mam, the lowest site producing quantities of 
P i edat or-acc u mu I ated passerine fossils being Pun 
ms-! CaVe at 305 m elev »tion (James et al. 
987) - If Ciridops did occur on Maui, as its 
