4 Beniice P. Bishop Museitm — Bulletin 



tail feathers of the cock but the better sort of people have them of the tropick 

 birds' feathers, or those belonging to a black and yellow bird called Mo-ho. The 

 handle is very frequently made of the bones of the arm or leg of those whom they 

 have killed in battle, curiously inlaid with tortoise-shell ; these they deem very val- 

 uable and will not part with them under great price. This ornament is common to 

 superiors of both sexes. 



Later, Captain Nathaniel Portlock referred to these brushes (4, p. 88) 



when describing the suppHes purchased from the natives: 



Curiosities, too, found their way to market and I purchased two very curious 

 fly-flaps, the upper part composed of very beautiful variegated feathers ; the handles 

 were human bone, inlaid with tortoise-shell in the neatest manner which gave them 

 the appearance of fineered (veneered) work. 



Captain George Dixon, who was as.sociated with Portlock refers to 

 these objects (3, p. 272) as follows: 



Fans and fly-flaps are used by both sexes . . . The fly-flaps are very 

 curious ; the handles are decorated with alternate pieces of wood and bone which 

 at a distance has the appearance of fineered work ; the upper part or flap is the 

 feathers of the man-of-war bird. 



Vancouver, also, mentions fly-flaps (6, Vol. Ill, p. 42) for the dispersal 

 of oflf ending insects ; but makes no further references to entomology. 



Apparently, the first entomological work in Hawaii was done by Doctor 

 Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz, who at the age of 22, in the capacity of 

 physician and naturalist, accompanied the Russian explorer Otto von Kotze- 

 bue on his first voyage. This brilliant student, upon his return to his 

 native country was appointed professor of anatomy and afterwards direc- 

 tor of the zoological museum of the university at the University of Dorpat, 

 his native city. Kotzebue himself, though only an intelligent sailor, makes 

 .several interesting allusions (7, Vol. I, p. 306) to the fauna of the group: 



"The chief employment of the royal ladies consists in smoking tobacco, 

 combing their hair, driving away the flies with a fan and eating." Speak- 

 ing of the king's daughter (7, Vol. I, p. 307), he says: "Behind her stood 

 a little negro boy, holding a silk umbrella over her head to protect her 

 from the rays of the sun ; two other boys with tufts of red feathers, drove 

 away the flies from her." And in describing how the sailors were enter- 

 tained at dinner ashore, Kotzebue (7, Vol. I, p. 311) relates: "Each of 

 them had, like us, a kanaka standing behind him with a ttift of red feathers 

 to drive away the flies." Finally he speaks more directly of the fauna 

 (7, Vol. Ill, p. 237), "The only original wild quadrupeds of the Sandwich 

 Lslands are a small bat and the rat. To these is added our common mouse, 

 besides the flea, some species of Blatta and other noxious parasites." 



In the appendix of the third volume of the narrative of Kotzebue's 

 voyage (7, p. 376) is the description by Eschscholtz of our native Ha- 

 waiian butterfly, Vanessa taineamca and descriptions of all the new butter- 

 flies collected in the various countries visited. The other orders of in- 



