Fish Nets. 155 



lias been taiiued and, where broken, mended witli tanned and untanned twine. The 

 method of use is unknown, but judging from the large mesh and fine twine it was used 

 for entangling. Natives have told the writer of two methods of bird-catching with 

 nets, one of which was to lie concealed on the hills in wait for the birds returning from 

 the sea at nightfall, and as thej- approached heav}^ with food and flying low, to sud- 

 denly appear and raise the net : the startled bird darted upward and became enmeshed. 

 The other method was used for plover when resting on rocks inside the coral reef. 

 The hunter chose a dark night and waded at high tide to one of the uncovered rocks. 

 The net was wetted and silently shaken over the sleeping birds, which, waking and ex- 

 pedling rain, crowded closer together and slept again. The shower was repeated several 

 times and the hunter, then sure of his quarry, threw the net over the group and held 

 down the edges close to the rock with his hands and feet. When the birds were ex- 

 hausted with their struggling, the net was gathered together with the booty inside. 



Fish Nets. — Upena, or fish nets and methods of using them have been described 

 with considerable detail in Mrs. Beckley's" concise and complete article on Hawaiian 

 fisheries, and Mr. Cobb's" comprehensive work on the commercial fisheries of these 

 islands, in which is incorporated that of Mrs. Beckley. It will therefore not be neces- 

 sary to do more than mention the nets of onl}- Hawaiian origin, and describe and list 

 such as are in the Museum. 



The netting tools and the sizes of the mesh have been mentioned above. The 

 material used was olona, with rare exceptions. There is an upena ahuulu in the collec- 

 tion. No. 764, with uniisually thick closely spun cord, which on examination proved to 

 be waoke. In this example — a small hand net — it is probable that some cord prepared 

 for koko was substituted during a scarcit}- of olona. The other materials were hau, 

 coir and ahuawa. For the shark net, upena mano, hau bark was stripped from the 

 tree and while fresh was roughly twisted into thick rope. Hau and ahuawa were used 

 for the rough turtle net — upena honu. Coir netting is said to have been used to lie in 

 the water, as a prote(?ttion against sharks, a few feet outside an olona net in which cap- 

 tured fish were awaiting landing. Fishermen declare that sharks dislike the roughness 

 of an article manufaftured of coir. Another fisherman stated that the Hawaiian nets 

 were not of coir, and that the use of such material was due to the Gilbert Islanders, of 

 whom there was a large colony here for a generation up to a few years ago. Taking 

 into consideration the abundance of olona in this place and its flexibility, and the small 

 size and scarcity- of coconuts in these islands, it would seem natural that of the two the 

 natives would turn to olona as the staple. A number of the Museum nets have been 



"Emma Mctcalf Beckley. Hawaiian Fisheries and Methods of Fishing. Honolulu, 1883. 



''John N. Cobb. Commercial Fisheries of the Hawaiian Islands, U. S. Fish Commission Report for igoi. 

 Wasliinj^ton, 1902. U might be mentioned that in Mr. Cobb's excellent report are a number of sketches of fishing 

 implements in this Museum, the acknowledgment of which has undoubtedly been overlooked by that gentleman. 



