HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 81 



island of Hawaii, where it is generally diffused.. That a bird, 

 possessed of such strong powers of flight as io, should be limited 

 to a single island is most surprising and, indeed, unaccountable. 

 Even, however, if the hawk reported from Kauai by Mr. Dole 

 was of this species, the bird must be very rare upon that 

 island, since no recent collector has obtained, or even seen it. 



Upon both the windward and leeward sides of Hawaii the io is 

 by no means a rare bird, though it is nothing like so common as 

 it used to be in the old days. Inspired with the idea that any and 

 all hawks must, from their very nature, destroy chickens, the set- 

 tlers, for several years, have shot all hawks upon sight. This 

 ruthlessness is all the more to be regretted since io rarely ever 

 touches a chicken or, indeed, a native bird of any kind. I have 

 made constant inquiry among poultry raisers in the heart of the 

 io range, and have yet to find any one who has ever seen a hawk 

 seize a chicken. The hawks have been suspected because they 

 have been seen near the poultry-yard. As a matter of fact mon- 

 goose and rats, more especially the latter, are responsible for most 

 of the depredations for which io is blamed. I have dissected more 

 than thirty adult hawks collected upon the windward side of Ha- 

 waii, and have yet to find the first evidence of the chicken-eating 

 propensities alleged against the bird. I have found as many as 

 four mice in the crop and stomach of a single bird, and nearly 

 every hawk examined had the remains of at least one mouse or 

 rat. In the stomach of but two individuals have I found native 

 birds. One of these had killed two akakanis and the other had 

 killed an amakihi. 



I have elsewhere noted the finding of the fragment of an e^ — 

 perhaps of the omao — in the stomach of one of these hawks wWcfi 

 the bird had taken, presumably from the nest. I regret to be cooi- 

 pelled to add that this is not the sole instance of the bird's piQ)- 

 pensity to rob nests which has come to my notice. I learn froriii 

 an informant in Kaiwiki that he has seen hawks more than once- 

 in the very act of robbing mynahs' nests, despite the vociferotcs- 

 protests of a whole colony of the parent birds. The mynahs in 

 this case had their nests in the forks of the main branches of some 

 ■ohia trees close' to the house. The hawks flew up against the 



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