24 



from India about twt-iity <»i' more years ago, for th(^ very pur- 

 pose of feeding' upon army worms and cutworms. Although it 

 has some other undesirable habits, yet it is very vahud)l(' for 

 this i)ur])ose. It has increased probably to its maximum limit, 

 and is perhaps at ])resent somewhat reduced in nmnbcrs on 

 account of the lack of Lantana berries which at oiu' time 

 formed a large part of its diet. 



It is to be found practically everywhere throughout the Isl- 

 ands, at least the habitable and cultivable ])ortions. With its 

 increase has come the decrease in devastation by army worms 

 and cutworms ; whereas previously it is reported that whole 

 fields of young cane were stripped oti' by the great numbers of 

 caterpillars, and that grass lands of great areas were likewise 

 totally eaten otf, particularly by the grass army worm (Spodop- 

 tem mauntia), in recent years the damage has been slight 

 compared with formerly. 



The golden plover {Charadrius fidviis) also lives largely on 

 these cater))illars. They come from Alaska to these Islands 

 for the winter season, coming in August and remaining till 

 the following April. Before leaving they l)ecome very fat from 

 their cutworm diet. In regard to their habits, I quote from 

 Dr. Perkins in Fauna Ilawaiiensis: 



"In many parts of the Islands large numbers of plover habitually 

 resort to the margin of the sea and the extensive mud-flats for feed- 

 ing purposes, but the greater part scatter over the lower-lying grass 

 lands and the open mountain country, where they may be found even 

 as high as five or six thousand feet above the sea. " In such locali- 

 ties they find abundant food in the caterpillars of various Noctuid 

 moths, and indeed in the moths themselves. Of all the Island birds 

 the plover is beyond question the most valuable to the grazier and 

 the agriculturist, and it is singularly unfortunate that it is a most 

 excellent bird for the table, and at the same time the one most gen- 

 erally sought after by sportsmen. 



"I have been at some pains to learn exactly the species of Noctui- 

 dae v^hich form the favorite food for the plover, whether as moth 

 or caterpillars, and I have several times shot the bird at the instant 

 that it has seized a moth in its hiding-place at the roots of grass. I 

 am therefore able to state positively that it catches the moth both of 

 Agrotis crinigera and dislocata, the caterpillars of which are the two 

 most extremely injurious and wide-spread of all the Island 'cut- 

 worms.' It also obtains the caterpillars of both these and other 

 species and feeds, as is well known, to an enormous extent on the 

 grassy army worm (Spodoptera viauritia) , a caterpillar which not 



