INTRODUCTION xxiii 



region gets little or none of these. The region of heaviest precipitation, whether on 

 windward or leeward side, is generally from 1 200 to 5000 ft. above sea level, or corre- 

 sponds with the region of dense forest. 



The temperature at the United States Weather Bureau Station in Honolulu for 

 the years 1905 — 1909 is recorded as follows : 



1905 1906 1907 1908 J 909 

 Highest shade temp. (Fahr.) 84° 85° 86° 85° 84° 



Lowest temp. 57° 57° 62° 61° 56° 



On the lowlands a temperature of 90 or even more is occasionally but very 

 rarely noted, and one as low as 52° rarely occurs. 



The decrease of temperature with elevation is reckoned as i°F. for each 320 ft. 

 of ascent in the mountains. 



At the U.S. Weather Bureau Station the annual rainfall in Honolulu for the five 

 years above quoted was i6'99, 2577, 30*13, I9"i7 and 20"8i inches, while in some 

 coastal localities the rainfall would be considerably less. A few miles behind the 

 town the rainfall is much heavier; thus on Mount Tantalus, in 1905, at an elevation 

 of 1300 ft. it amounted to 99'68 inches, while on the ridges behind Tantalus it would 

 have been much heavier still — probably twice as heavy — since they precipitate much 

 of the rain before it reaches the Tantalus group. In a wet district, such as windward 

 Hawaii, the rainfall for the same five years at Hakalau in the Hamakua district at an 

 elevation of 200 ft. was i67"59, i22'8o, i82"6o, I47"i9 and 152-54 inches, and a few 

 miles above, at 1200 ft. elevation, it was much heavier still, 26o"67 (1907), 2o6'33 (1908) 

 and 23375 (1909). 



In 1907 (a year selected at random) at Waiakea (50 ft.) in the Hilo district of 

 Hawaii it was rainy on 333 days ; at Waianae, a very dry district of Oahu, on 

 60 days of the same year. 



As by far the greater part of the Fauna has its home in the wet-belt or forest-belt 

 it will be easily understood that any particular collecting trip can be, and often is, very 

 seriously interfered with by climatic conditions. On the high mountains of the Kona 

 side of Hawaii, there is (where it has not been destroyed) a very dense forest-belt with 

 heavy rainfall and a much drier but well-forested region above this. Something like 

 this is also found on the windward side, but there is this great difference, that, on the 

 latter, the region below the forest enjoys a large rainfall, while on the Kona side the 

 lower slopes and coastal region are for the greater part of the year extremely dry and 

 parched up. 



In the winter the highest mountains of Hawaii and less frequently Haleakala on 

 Maui are snow-capped, the snow sometimes extending down into the forest-belt. Frost 

 is rarely observed below 4000ft. even in the winter months. In Feb. 1902, in some 

 more or less open forest land on Molokai at 3000 ft. the ground was white with 

 hoar-frost on several consecutive days, and all the tender pink-coloured terminal leaves 



