26 HAWAIIAN £IRDS. 



well known naturalist, Nuttall, visited the Islands of Oahu and 

 Kauai of the group, and spent three months. At the end of the 

 year Townsend returned and, with Deppe, the Prussian natural- 

 ist, spent some time in natural history pursuits, visiting most of 

 the windward islands before finally leaving, which he did in 

 March, 1837. 



Our gain in knowledge of the avifauna of the islands resulting 

 from the visits of these three investigators was comparatively 

 little. Nothing was published by the investigators themselves 

 though their collections contained several new species of birds. 

 Nuttall was an exceedingly good observer, and notes from him on 

 the habits, and especially upon the songs, which he had a happy 

 knack of describing, of any of the birds he must have seen upon 

 Oahu and Kauai would have been of great value. Again any- 

 thing Uke a thorough collection of the birds then existing upon 

 the islands would now be of inestimable worth since it must have 

 contained representatives of certain species, not only now extinct 

 but of which not a single specimen is in existence. 



One of Townsend's observations made in the Island of Kauai is 

 so interesting, referring as it does to a long forgotten practice of 

 the natives, that I cannot refrain from quoting it here entire from 

 Wilson's Introduction: 



"We made here several long excursions over the hills and 

 through the deep valleys, without much success. The birds are 

 the same as those we found and collected at Oahu, but are not 

 so numerous. They are principally creepers . {Certhia) and 

 honey-suckers (Nectarinia) ; feed chiefly upon flowers, and the 

 sweet juice of the banana, and some species are very abundant. 

 The native boys here have adopted a singular mode of catching 

 the honey-sucking birds. They lay themselves flat upon their 

 backs upon the ground, and cover their whole bodies with bushes, 

 and the campanulate flowers of which the birds are in search. 

 One of these flowers is then held by the lower portion of the tube 

 between the fingers and the thumb ; the little bird inserts his long, 

 curved bill to the base of the flower, when it is immediately seized 

 by the fingers of the boy, and the little flutterer disappears be- 



