296 SOME POLYNESIAN AND HAWAIIAN BIRDS 



chief interest from a zoological point of view is concentrated on certain types of 

 birds by which they are, or were, inhabited. It may, however, be mentioned that 

 an Indian mongoose has been introduced into Fiji, with the same disastrous results 

 to the fauna as when this destructive animal was turned loose in Jamaica. To 

 Fiji it was introduced about 1885 to keep in check the hosts of rats which 

 were at that time playing havoc with the sugar-cane plantations. " The 

 result has been," writes Dr. P. H. Bahr, " that the rats are still found in plenty, 

 whereas the more defenceless birds have suffered. To such an extent has the 

 mongoose increased that it is now a common and obvious feature of the landscape. 

 The rearing of domestic fowls has become almost an impossibility. Within the 

 confines of our garden in Suva I had little difficulty in killing over thirty of these 

 animals in less than a fortnight by means of two mongoose-traps. I frequently 

 observed the mongoose spring on and successfully catch small birds feeding in the 

 long grass. It has taken to climbing trees, and therefore the species building in 

 more or less accessible positions, such as the parrots and the lories, have suffered 

 most. The pigeons, which place their nests in the more slender branches, have 

 to a much larger extent escaped. The harmless ground-snakes, once so highly 

 prized by the Fijians as an article of food, have disappeared from Vitilevu, and 

 it is said that even the land-crabs have shared the same fate. Luckily, however, 

 the ravages of the- mongoose are confined at present to the two larger islands, 

 Vitilevu and Vanualevu, where sugar is grown on an extensive scale. The 

 lovely and fertile island of Taviuni, in spite of certain ill-advised attempts at 

 introduction, which happily have so far been frustrated, still remains free from 

 this pest, and is a sanctuary to the birds peculiar to it." The Indian myna (Acri- 

 dotheres tristis) has also been introduced into Fiji, with disastrous results to some 

 of the native birds. 



New Caledonia, the largest of the islands here classed as Poly- 

 nesian, is the home of a very remarkable bird known as the kagu 

 (Rhinochetes jubatus), the representative not only of a genus, but perhaps also 

 of a family by itself. Ornithologists are, however, still in doubt as to its true 

 affinities, for while it is generally admitted to have a distant kinship with the 

 cranes, some writers assign it a position next to the Malagasy Mesites, while 

 others regard it as widely different. Of the size of a large cock, the kagu 

 may be at once recognised by its soft grey plumage, the crest of long pendent 

 feathers at the back of the head, and the moderately long beak, with the nostrils 

 placed well to the front. 



The kagu was discovered at the time of the French occupation of New 

 Caledonia in 1852, although not named and described till 1860, when a living 

 specimen was shown at the Paris Colonial Exhibition. The general appearance 

 of this grey bird, especially the long pendent, erectile crest of feathers at the back 

 of the head, as well as its curious antics, are familiar from the specimens exhibited 

 from time to time in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park; but the 

 specimens upon which the following observations are based were kept in the 

 grounds of a private house at Sydney, where they bred. The nest was formed in 

 a hollow in one corner of the aviary, and consisted only of a few coarse sticks and 

 leaves. Only a single egg is laid, which is surrounded by more sticks, and this 



