Some Birds of Molokat. 45 
an ever present source of real, though hidden, danger to one work- 
ing in the region. Add to all these and a hundred other material 
things the discomforts of the cold drenching rains, the dripping 
forests, and the dense—oftimes bewildering—clouds of fog that 
envelope everything, and there would seem to have been little 
omitted that would add to the discomfort of the collector. 
The Halawa district is even more discouraging to the nat- 
uralist. The country—an otherwise sloping plain—is cut into 
long sharp ridges by numerous, almost countless, streams and tribu- 
tary ramifying valleys, all converging to pour their waters down 
Moaula and Hipuapua falls, into the beautiful Halawa valley. 
Throughout this headwater region Ieie (/vevervetza) vines run ram- 
pant. ‘The trail must be cleared of them at every step. Splendid 
trees are so overgrown and completely hidden by them that when 

one looks over the forest from a point of vantage there is little else 
than ieie in sight. The difficulties and mishaps incident to carry- 
ing a gun and working one’s way for days through such a snarl 
can be better imagined than described. It is not uncommon for 
one to be forced to abandon the ground entirely, and to climb for 
considerable distances over the bushes and low trees; often one is 
twenty feet or more from the ground, on top of the tangle of vines. 
To find the small and inconspicuously colored birds after they have 
dropped to the ground through such a maze is a task of no mean 
proportion: often hours of fruitless labor can be thus expended. 
Though less boggy than Pelekunu, and less overgrown with 
vines than Halawa, the stations at Moanui and Mapulehu each 
presented physical obstacles to the collector that are, in their way, 
almost as difficult to surmount. Among them might be mentioned 
the long narrow ridges and impassable waterfalls at Moanui, and 
the precipitous palis of Wailau and Mapulehu. 
In general it may be said that the forests of the island are 
characteristically timbered with the common native trees of the 
group, save for the striking exception of the Koa (Acacia) which 
is entirely wanting in the Molokai mountains. The Ohia (J/efro- 
stderos) is everywhere the most conspicuous, and, to the ornitholo- 
gist, the most important tree. Wild banana (J/wsa), several kinds 
of the large lobelias, the Kopiko (S/vaussia), Olema (Perrottetia) , 
and a number of other trees, are common in the higher ranges, 
while Kukui (4/eurites) is an abundant species in the valleys and 
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