HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 27 



neath the mass of bushes. In this way dozens of beautiful birds 

 are taken, and they are brought to us living and uninjured." 



Much 6i ornithological interest was to have been expected from 

 the Wilkes' expedition of the year 1840 from the zeal and ability 

 of its well known naturalists, Pickering and Peale. During their 

 six months' stay considerable collections were made, but nearly 

 all of them were lost in the wreck of one of the ships, the Pea- 

 cock. Of the original report upon the mammals and birds by 

 Peale, nearly all the copies were destroyed by fire, a new edition 

 being brought forth by Cassin in 1858. 



In 1852 Fr. Hartlaub published an extract of the results of the 

 Wilkes' expedition, and in his summary of the birds inhabiting the 

 islands he includes thirty species, though two of them are marked 

 as doubtful. Commenting upon Hartlaub's list. Prof. Newton re- 

 marks that "one of them is now known to be rightly included, but 

 the other must be struck out, as well as, for one reason or an- 

 other, four more— leaving a total of twenty-five, only sixteen of 

 which are land-birds and only fourteen passeres." 



So stood our knowledge of Hawaiian birds till 1869 when a 

 "Synopsis of the Birds hitherto described from the Hawaiian 

 Islands" was communicated to the Boston Society of Natural 

 History by Mr. Sanford B. Dole, and was published in the pro- 

 ceedings of the Society for that year. This list proved a notable 

 advance on our previous knowledge, and included 48 species, the 

 author stating his belief that this number "probably comprises 

 but little more than half the avifauna of the group" — a. very ac- 

 curate estimate as it proved. A revision of this list, in which 

 some of its errors were corrected, appeared in the Hawaiian An- 

 nual for 1879. 



About the year 1887 Mr. Valdemar Knudsen made many valu- 

 able and interesting collections of natural history upon the island 

 of Kauai, and much of his material was sent to the National 

 Museum. The birds were studied by Dr. Stejneger, and the re- 

 sults were published in the proceedings of that institution for 

 1887. By Mr. Knudsen's efforts several new species of birds 

 were discovered, all of them on the island of Kauai. 



The year 1887 marked a new era in the history of Hawaiian 



