158 Bird -Lore 



birds. As is well known, several island birds are already extinct, especially 

 upon Oahu, which has been extensively deforested. Upon Hawaii the 

 Noho {Pennula ecaudata) has been extinct for years, having been extermi- 

 nated by the domestic cat run wild. Had any of the wingless Rails been 

 fortunate enough to survive the inroads of Tabby, it would only have been 

 to meet their fate from the mongoose, which spares no living thing it 

 can reach. 



The Namo has been exterminated for its feathers, and the Oo must 

 soon share the same fate. The native Duck {Anas wyviUiana) and the 

 Gallinule upon the Island of Hawaii are rapidly diminishing under the 

 never-ceasing attacks of the mongoose. The Puffin and the Petrel are 

 sharing the same fate, and the native Goose is in danger, though likely to 

 maintain itself for some time to come. 



The above birds have become, or are becoming, extinct from known 

 causes, but some species have died out for no assignable reason. The 

 ChcBtoptila angustipluma is a case in point. Though said to be rare in the 

 time of Peale and Pickering, both naturalists saw it, and we may be sure 

 that for many years subsequent to the visits of these men no change what- 

 ever occurred in the forests. Yet from their day till now the bird has never 

 been seen, and the natives do not know it even by name. The cause of 

 its extinction will probably ever remain one of Nature's own secrets. 



In connection with the future of Hawaiian birds, it is not to be over- 

 looked that upon all the islands the forest is diminishing, owing to the 

 devastations of cattle and the ax of the settler, and the birds living in the 

 deforested tracks must either die or be forced into the untouched areas, 

 where soon a sharp struggle for existence must begin. 



Some species, like the Alala {Corvus tropicus), are restricted to certain 

 areas beyond which they seem never to attempt to pass. In the case of 

 the Crow, the sole reason appears to be that, having first attained a foot- 

 hold in a comparatively dry district, the birds are unwilling or unable to 

 encounter a moister climate, even though the windward forests adjoin 

 their own and abound with suitable food. 



Viridonia furnishes a still more remarkable instance of restricted habitat. 

 This, one of the rarest of Hawaiian birds, is confined to a forest area a 

 few miles square, and is absolutely unknown outside its own little kingdom. 



That extensive deforestation should have a marked efiect upon Hawaiian 

 birds, wholly unused as they are to competition of any kind, is what we 

 might expect ; but there remains to be recorded a still more remarkable 

 fact indicative of the singular sensitiveness of Hawaiian birds to change. 

 Large sections of forest land on Hawaii that have been but slightly inter- 

 fered with by man, and that are nearly as dense and impenetrable as they 

 ever were, have been almost wholly abandoned by birds within the last ten 

 years. For this abandonment no reasonable explanation suggests itself. 



