So Die Birds of Molokai. 59 



birds, having accompanied Mr. Palmer on his expedition through 

 the group, the fact that he did not find the Hoa added great 

 weight to Mr. Meyer's opinion that since 1S94 the bird had be- 

 come extinct. 



After spending three weeks in the woods about Pelekunu, 

 having had the advantage of Mr. Perkins' notes, and Mr. Munro's 

 experience, I left the Kamoku camp satisfied that there was 

 scarcely a hope of finding even a chance specimen in that se(5lion. 

 It seemed certain too, that unless the birds could be found in some 

 one of two or three similar localities on the island, there could be 

 but little doubt but that it had vanished from the Hawaiian forests 

 forever. During the next ten days especially devoted to a search for 

 the Hoa and the Oo, in the Halawa mountains — in a seclion prob- 

 ably never before hunted over, or perhaps never even visited by 

 white men — under forest and climatic conditions suited to both 

 species, I was unable to locate either of them, and quit the region 

 thoroughly discouraged and disheartened. 



The next attempt was made at Moanui ranch. vSince it was 

 here, and here only, that I secured specimens, a fuller account of 

 the experiences of this part of the expedition will be of interest, 

 as showing some of the difficulties attending the work in these 

 mountains, as well as the characler of the country in which a few 

 Hoa still survive. After settling my camp at the Moanui moun- 

 tain house on the morning of May 30, I .set off alone up Honoulu- 

 vvai valley, that being regarded by Mr. Tollefson and his men at 

 the ranch, as probably the most feasible way of getting back into 

 the mountains. Xo one, to their knowledge, had reached the head 

 of the stream ; in fact, the mountainous part of the ranch was 

 terra incognita to the owner of the ranch, and everyone else, for 

 its back boundaries had never been surveyed, or even visited. 

 By picking my way over the boulders in the bed of the stream and 

 working around the small waterfalls, I made fairly rapid progress 

 until late in the afternoon, when I came on a small waterfall where 

 the stream poured over a steep ledge, twenty-five feet or more in 

 height. On either side of the stream the solid rock ran up almost 

 perpendicularly for three or four hundred feet. The only way to 

 proceed seemed either to turn back and leave the stream entirely, or 

 to scale the falls itself. Judging by the characler of the country and 

 similar experiences elsewhere, it seemed probable that the stream 



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