90 HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 



be induced to breed in the islands and so remain the year round 

 to wage war on insect pests. 



In this connection I regret to be compelled to state that this fine 

 bird is becoming scarcer and scarcer with every succeeding year. 

 The fact that it visits all the islands in great numbers, added ta 

 the excellence of its flesh for the table, has long made it the favor- 

 ite object of pursuit by island sportsmen and, as the latter have 

 materially increased in numbers of late years, the plover have cor- 

 respondingly diminished. 



Neither the kolea nor the akekeke can go long without slaking 

 their thirst, and from the barren uplands of Kau great numbers 

 every day wend their way to the rare watering places which here 

 are on the coast just above high water mark. The monient thirst 

 is quenched tt|e birds return to the feeding-grounds. These daily 

 flights of the plover and akekeke after water afiford the sports- 

 men their opportunity, and great numbers of the birds are killed 

 from blinds placed within easy range of the watering places. 



A comparatively small number of kolea roost upon the coast 

 with the akekeke. By far the greater number assemble at night- 

 fall and fly in fljocks to one of the lava-flows which are so bare 

 and inaccessible as to offer safe refuge from all enemies that have 

 not wings. The floor of the crater of Kilauea also used to harbor 

 thousands every night. 



The first rains in the dry districts send the green grass above 

 ground, and the plover soon become very fat feeding upon the 

 worms and insects which infest the grass. By April all the kolea, 

 both old and young, are in prime condition, having moulted and 

 the old birds having now assumed in* great part the dress of black 

 and gold their wedding season calls for. During this month they 

 leave the islands in large flocks, and by early May there are com- 

 paratively few left. Mr. Hoswell, of the Pepeekeo Plantation, 

 Hawaii, informs me that in the early morning of the first days of 

 April of the year 1900 he saw large flocks of kolea (and probably 

 of akekeke) circling high in air over the coast and finally, after 

 soaring in wide circles till almost out of sight, they took a north- 

 erly course and soon disappeared in the distance. Some of the 

 flocks soared so high that they were lost to sight before settling 



