Drepanis (drepanis)

[ Sickle-billed Sunbird ( Drepanis pacific a). and Sandwich islands, sometimes giving name to a subfamily Drepanina; the sickle-billed sunbirds. D. pacific a is an example. The genus is also called Falcator, and some of the species are referred to Mellithreptus. In some species, as Drepanis vestiaria, or Vestiaria coccinea, the bill is enormously long and curved almost to a semicircle. This is a scarlet species from the plumage of which the Sandwich islanders manufacture beautiful robes. drepanium (dre-pā'ni-um), n.; pl. drepania (-a). [NL., Gr. δρεπάνιον, dim. of δρέπανον, equiv. to δρεπάνη, a sickle: see Drepane.] In bot., a sickle-shaped cyme, the succe ive flowers springing always from the upper side of their respective axes.