Field Notes on the Birds of Oahu. 33 



depth of seven or eight, the number of pieces and the work were 

 considerable. During the building each board, before it was per- 

 manently fastened, was placed upon its lower neighbor edge to 

 edge, between the two being a strip of pandanus leaf well covered 

 with charcoal. In this manner the points needing to be reduced 

 were blackened as a guide to the rasp. Such fine work was not 

 suitable for the shell adzes of the islanders. 



For many years the natives have generally used steel rasps, 

 when obtainable, in place of their less durable ones of ray-skin. 

 The effe(5tiveness of the latter while it is new is quite as great as 

 of those brought by the white man. However, the tubercles ordi- 

 narily could be used but a week at most, being often rendered 

 useless b}' but one day's hard work. The native name is Tapaugu. 

 In other island groups there were also in use, for reducing pur- 

 poses, shark-skin rasps, pumice and mushroom coral (Fungia), 

 some employing all methods while others knew of but one or two. 



FIELD NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF OAHU, H. I. 



Bj' Alvin Seale, CoUecflor for the Museum. November 12, 1S99 to March 20, 1900. 



Owing to the bubonic plague quarantine these observations, 

 since January 3, have been restridled to the immediate vicinity of 

 Honolulu. The difficulty of collecting in these islands, with their 

 dense tropical jungles and knife-like mountain ridges, has been 

 mentioned by all former collectors, and I can only add, that while I 

 have collected in difficult places before, including the boggy tundra 

 of Siberia, the high mountains of Alaska, the Tamerack swamps of 

 Michigan, and the Everglades of Florida, I have found nothing that 

 could discourage an Ornithologist so much as one of these islands. 

 The different species of land birds found on Oahu are few in number. 

 Mr. Wilson, in "Aves Hawaiienses," gives but five existing forms, 

 as follows: 



Order PASSERES. Family Drepanid^. 



Vestiaria coccinea. Oreomyza maculata. 



Himatione sanguinea. Chlorodrepanis chloris. 



Order PASSERES. Famii^y Muscicapid^. 



Chasiempis gayi. 



O. p.: B. p. B. M.— Vol. I., No. 3. 



