156 Bird - Lore and on the outer extremities of the branches, where they are inaccessible to all save creatures with wings. Moreover, a dense covering of mosses, lichens, ferns and shrubs envelops all the limbs, and in them a multitude of nests may be hidden and no one be any the wiser. More than once I have seen birds whose nests are yet unknown, with nest material in bill: but, as it happens, they have each time been on their way to distant trees, and one must possess wings to follow a bird through such a tangle where the sight is restricted to a few square yards. It will be long, therefore, ere much is known of the inner life of Hawaiian birds. There is one characteristic of the woodland birds of Hawaii which is so unique as to deserve brief mention. I allude to the powerful musk-like, but not unpleasant, odor which attaches to the feathers of most of them. Perhaps this odor is more marked in Ou than in any other species. It is so strong in this species that I am sure I have detected it from living birds when near by on low trees, although my sense of smell is anything but acute. In a freshly killed specimen this odor is simply overpowering, and is much stronger in the early morning than later in the day. At first I thought it probable that the scent was connected with the oil with which the birds dress their feathers, which, in a climate so wet as this, must be used often and in unusual quantities. However, I have been able to detect only a slight odor from this oil when freshly squeezed from the oil-gland. If this characteristic odor originated after the ancestors of the present species reached the islands, and if it is in anyway beneficial to its possessors, it seems singular that it should not be shared bv all the woodland species whose habits are analogous. Several species are, however, wholly without it. It is possible, as I believe Mr. Perkins has suggested, that what at first seems to be of trivial significance may be found to have a deeper mean- ing, and that this odor may point to the ancestry and to the ancestral home of some of the island birds. As the American Cccrebidas, according to Dr. Gadow, are the most likely group from which the Island Drepanidids are derived, it would be most interesting to discover if the plumage of any of the former have the same characteristic scent. In this connection it is interesting to note that the ()o, Omao and Elepaio are believed by Dr. Gadow to have a non -American origin and not to be Drepanine. It is significant that the feathers of these species, together with lo, do not possess the peculiar odor which is shared, I believe, by all the Island Drepanine forms, certainly b- all of them resident upon the Island of Hawaii. I have alluded above to the songs of Hawaiian birds. In common with a widespread belief, I had expected to find little music in Hawaiian woods, and I was greatly surprised. Certain species of Hawaiian birds, it is true, sing rarely. Thus, though I have seen perhaps a hundred individuals of Akialoa {Hem. ohscitrus) , I have yet to hear its song, and the same is true
