Vol. XXVII 

 1910 



] Henshaw, Migration of the Pacific Plover. 247 



species of lizards, more than fifty species of birds, and at least two 

 mammals, finally made good their foothold on the islands and 

 flourished, some more, some less, according to their nature and 

 adaptability. 



Avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. — Among other inhabitants of 

 the islands are some 45 species of passerine birds, one hawk, an 

 owl, a mud hen, a gallinule, a stilt, a duck, a goose, and a few others. 

 All of these I pass by for the moment, and come to certain migrants 

 from North America which regularly journey between the islands 

 and the continent both spring and fall. Four of these migrate 

 in great numbers, viz., Golden Plover, Turnstone, Wandering 

 Tatler, and Bristle-thighed Curlew; the Shoveller Duck and 

 Pintail also visit the islands in considerable numbers. In addition 

 to these are perhaps a dozen other ducks and geese whose occur- 

 rence in the islands is more or less casual, and the same remark 

 applies to a dozen or fifteen wading birds. Altogether, including 

 the regular migrants, the casuals, and the accidentals, the visiting 

 birds make quite a respectable winged army. 



Islands accidcntaUi/ discovered hy present migrants. — It is not 

 supposable that birds ever put to sea to seek unknown lands by a 

 hitherto untraveled route. We know that millions of birds of many 

 species are annually, or semiannually, driven out to sea by storms, 

 especially species that migrate near the sea coast. Many, perhaps 

 most, of these storm-driven waifs never see land again, but become 

 wing weary and find watery graves. Some few, however, reach 

 safe havens in oceanic islands, and in this way no doubt such islands 

 have received their bird colonists. 



That the Golden Plover, like the other migrants from the North 

 American coast, discovered Hawaii accidentally is hardly open to 

 doubt. I see no necessity for presupposing the existence of sunken 

 continents, or of ancient continental extensions, to account for the 

 presence on the islands of the Plover and other North American 

 birds, like the Night Heron, Gallinule, and Coot. The presence 

 there of the weak-winged passerines is another matter, and it must 

 be admitted that proof of the existence of an ancient continent 

 stretching from the islands southward towards Australia would 

 simplify a very difficult problem. So far, however, as our North 

 American birds are concerned, it need be assumed only that long 



