Some Birds of Molokai. 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 {Freycinetia ) 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 Pelekuuu, 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 {Mctro- 

 sideros) is everywhere the most conspicuous, and, to the ornitholo- 

 gist, the most important tree. Wild banana (Mnsa), several kinds 

 of the large lobelias, the Kopiko (Straussid), Olema (Perrottetia) , 

 and a number of other trees, are common in the higher ranges, 

 while Kukui (Atciuitcs) is an abundant species in the valleys and 



[i35] 



