EAWAIIAN BIRDS. 85 



tiply. As the bird is a most indefatigable destroyer of tnice and 

 small rats it would prove an efficient ally of io in its war upon 

 these pests. 



Description. — ^Adult male. Upper parts, including head, neck and chest 

 light bluish grey; upper tail-coverts white; tail bluish grey with white 

 spots towards base, tipped narrowly with white, and with from five to 

 seven dusky bands; lower parts sprinkled with brown. 



Adult female. Above dusky brown, streaked and spotted with rusty; 

 upper tail-coverts white; tail brown, banded with black; lower parts gen- 

 erally dull buflf. Length 19-24 inches. 



Pandion haliaetus carolinensis (Gmelin). American Osprey. 



It is difficult to state the precise nature of the occurrence of the 

 osprey in the Hawaiian Islands, Mr. Perkins writes me that he 

 has shot the bird upon Oahu, where it "is found as a straggler 

 and no doubt at times on all the islands. It is, I believe, more 

 frequent on Kauai and Niihau." The writer has neither seen nor 

 heard of the osprey on Hawaii and, though the bird may occur 

 here casually, the coast being well adapted to its habits, it is cer- 

 tainly neither a regular inhabitant nor a regular visitor to the 

 windward side of the island. 



The osprey seems to have been noticed long ago in the islands 

 by Mr. Dole, though the fact has escaped the attention of recent 

 writers. His notes (Hawaiian Annual, 1879, P- 4^) under the 

 heading of Pa,ndion Solitarius, partly apply to this bird though 

 the bird described is Bttteo solitarius. He calls it "Osprey or Fish 

 Hawk," gives its habitat as Hawaii, Molokai and Niihau, and adds 

 the significant note that "it is probable that this bird inhabits all 

 the Hawaiian Islands, but as it frequents the most inaccessible 

 coasts it is rarely noticed:" The above in nowise applies to the 

 Buteo solitarius while entirely consonant with the view that the 

 osprey was the bird in mind. 



But the error does not stop here. Dole's Accipiter hawaii is 

 quoted by Wilson in his "Birds of the Hawaiian Islands" as a 

 synonym under Circus hudsonius. This citation I believe to be 

 an error, Dole's Accipiter hawaii, as the description proves, is a 

 young male Buteo solitarius in the brown phase of plumage. 



This hawk was supposed by Mr. Dole to be an undescribed 



