xvi FAUNA HAWAIIENSIS 



and the late Mr Valdemar Knudsen of Kauai, both of whom took much interest in 

 scientific work. To numerous others, many alas! now dead, I am also indebted. 

 Mr G. C. Munro, himself an ornithologist, gave me much assistance on many occasions 

 and once or twice spent a day collecting with me. My friend Mr Albert Koebele, 

 the only entomologist in the islands, during most of the period of my active collecting, 

 accompanied me on several collecting trips and gave me many valuable specimens. 

 Unfortunately for the most part he was absent on economic work in other countries. 

 To the Hon. C. R. Bishop, the founder of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, 

 to the Trustees of the same, and to Dr W. T. Brigham, the Director, under whose 

 guidance it has become a model institution, I am also indebted for help in various 

 ways. Of recent years my colleagues in economic entomology have furnished me 

 with specimens and information, and I have particularly made use of the observations 

 of Mr O. H. Swezey, who has so successfully studied the life-histories of many of 

 the larger and smaller Lepidoptera. The untimely death of my two assistants 

 Messrs G. W. Kirkaldy and F. VV. Terry, who were particularly interested in the 

 Hemiptera and Diptera of the islands is much to be deplored. To Mr W. M. Giffard 

 I am indebted for the gift of numerous specimens and the chance to examine many 

 others, by which I have been enabled to gain additional knowledge on the variability 

 of many species. From Bro. Matthias Newell I have received much help on many 

 occasions, including the gift of valuable specimens. Mr Scott B. Wilson, who himself 

 studied the Hawaiian Avifauna on various occasions, gave me much useful informa- 

 tion, when I first left England for Honolulu, and other assistance. 



General features of the islands. 



The material collected by myself and others and described or enumerated in 

 this work has been gathered almost entirely from the six largest and most lofty of 

 the eight chief islands of the Hawaiian archipelago. The other two islands Niihau 

 and Kahoolawe, each with an altitude considerably exceeding looo ft. above sea-level, 

 have long since been denuded of their forest, having served as pastures for sheep and 

 cattle. If any native fauna now exists on these, it must consist of very few species, 

 and is not likely to be of any great importance. Kahoolawe, as seen from the island 

 of Lanai, is often for days together, owing to the destruction of its vegetation, enveloped 

 in clouds of red dust and may now be said to be blowing out to sea. It is no longer 

 of any value even as a pasturage. Niihau, the most north-westerly of the main group, 

 still supports large numbers of sheep. From Niihau to Hawaii, in a direction north- 

 west to south-east, the main islands extend over a little more than five degrees of 

 longitude. 



North-west of Niihau is a chain of small islands, reefs, and shoals, continuing 

 the archipelago west through i8 more degrees of longitude, the whole Hawaiian group 



