First Impressions of Hawaiian Birds 



159 



The natural presumption would be that the birds, disliking even the 

 semblance of interference, have simpl}^ moved into adjoining tracts. Such 

 may be the explanation here. But bearing in mind the unaccountable 

 extinction of some Hau^aiian species and of the intense habit of localiza- 

 tion of nearly all surviving species, it is not v\^holly improbable that large 

 numbers of the dwellers in such tracts have succumbed to changes so slight 

 that hardier mainland birds would scarcely have noticed them at all, or 

 would have readily adjusted themselves to them. 



For species like the liwi and the Akakani there is much hope. These 

 nectar-loving birds are accustomed to follow the flowering of the ohias 

 from tract to tract and from lower to higher levels, and so long as consid- 

 erable areas of this tree remain it is probable that these beautiful and 

 interesting birds will survive. 



The Ou, too, seems to be something of a wanderer, owing, no doubt, 

 to the wide distribution of the ieie vine and its irregular time of flowering 

 and seeding. This fine bird also may be expected long to survive. But 

 there is no such favorable outlook for the bulk of the Hawaiian birds. 

 Developed under conditions the most unusual and peculiar, each within 

 its own chosen and restricted sphere, changes of any sort, and competition, 

 however weak, are likely to find them unprepared and, in the light of their 

 past history, are almost sure to prove disastrous. Like the Hawaiian race, 

 they will probably disappear rapidly, leaving behind as tokens of their exis- 

 tence a few dried skins in museums and some meager pages of life histories. 



A FAMILY OF YOUNG SCREECH OWLS 

 Natives of Bronx Park, New York City. Photographed by C. William Beebe 



