COLLECTING THE FEATHERS. 



13 



of feather work with care for this counterfeit. Fortunately both of the precious 

 yellow feathers have black bases not present of course in the dyed specimens. Dr. 

 Serrurier tells (Aarddri/ksk/iiidiir ]Veekhlad, 188 1, No. 19) an amusing story of dyed 

 feathers as quoted by Director vSchmeltz:"' '"S)te l^ouificn bet Snubuncfl xVlljelu jfinbtc 

 eiucit )Li(cI)CU Htnntcl mid) ivnciib eiucv Seftnuftcnuuci unb licjf \{)\\ bee (irollcu 5i>cvt[icci 

 l)rtU)cu \\xx eiue l)ol)c Siinime uevitd)evu. "Tne 2d)iff titt 2d)tffbrud), abcv uadi ciuificv 

 3cit imivbc bie i^abmu} aufaafijfllt mib bcv Hcnutel fain uiicbcr 511111 !isLn-)d)eiu, iiibcjj uuii 

 bov (iclbcu A-avbe bcr (Vcbcvii wax nid)tv mct)t iiLivio: bcr '•JJfaiitcl luav c]ciavbt gciueicn." 

 Now even the old natives 

 were aware of the action of ' " 

 salt water on the genuine 

 feathers and took great pre- 

 caution when carrying their 

 precious robes on canoe voy- 

 ages. Surelv the prolonged 

 saturation of a shipwreck 

 would account for any loss 

 of color. I have, however, 

 soaked both manio and iiwi 

 feathers in a saturated solu- 

 tion of common salt for six 

 mouths with but little loss of 

 color. The story, although 

 probabh' apocryphal, has L 

 .served its purpose. It is 

 unnecessary to more than 

 mention the leis and capes made in recent times of the feathers of the peacock and 

 pheasant, many of which were in the possession of Kalakaua and his sister; they were 

 poor substitutes for the genuine Hawaiian feathers. 



Besides the method of capturing with bird-lime, nets of light thread and wide 

 mesh were skilfully thrown over the flying bird, and sticks and stones were also re- 

 sorted to with the larger birds. Peheapueo was a snare used especially for owls. One 

 of the ancient nets for bird-catching is in this Museum (No. 138), and I have suc- 

 ceeded without difficultv in capturing with it the so-called "mina" (Pasfnr frisfis) a 

 bird about the size of the 00. This net is of considerable size and the mesh stick 

 would be five inches wdde. In whate\'er waj- the birds were caught the feathers when 

 plucked were tied to a thin but strong fibre and made up into small parcels as shown 

 in Fig. 7. The hunters often padded the main feather with the small down (pa'u) to 



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FIG. 7. FEATHERS FROM THE HUNTER. 



