BAWAIIA.N BIRDS. 91 



Upon their course. Doubtless these preliminary aerial evolutions 

 are for the purpose of settling their course and, perhaps, of get- 

 ting into favorable air currents. These migrating flocks have 

 been sighted by the captains of more than one vessel at various 

 points between San Francisco and the islands, and, as in Spring 

 they are always steering north, there seems to be no reason to 

 doubt that they are making direct for the Alaskan tundras. 



Careful observations by sea captains upon these migrating 

 flocks, giving the dates when the observations are made, the lat- 

 itude and longitude in which the flocks are seen, and the course 

 taken by them will still prove of great value, and will do much to 

 assist in solving the somewhat mysterious and always interesting- 

 problems of bird-migration. 



Description. — Adult. In summer above black, spotted with white and 

 golden yellow; below black, but forehead, sides of head, neck and chest 

 white'. In winter no black below; belly white; chest and sides of neck 

 washed with yellowish, and streaked with brown; upper parts spotted 

 with greyish and gold; no hind toe. Length about 8 or 9 inches. 



. SCOLOPACID^. SNIPE FAMILY. 



Numenius tahitiensis (Gmelin). Kioea; Bristle-thighed Curlew. 



The kioea appears to occur in small numbers upon all the 

 islands, where it is chiefly a winter visitant. Upon the windward 

 side of Hawaii the bird appears to be rather rare but Mr. Patten 

 informs me that nearly every season he sees a few, usually a small 

 flock, near Hakalau. Upon the Kau and Kona coasts the kioea 

 is more common, and a certain number are shot there each year. 



I feel sure that, a large majority of these curlew make their 

 appearance in September and October, and I have little doubt that 

 they come from Alaskan breeding grounds with the kolea and the 

 akekeke. Yet I am not prepared to assert that the kioea does not, 

 at least occasionally, nest upon the islands. At Kaalualu, on the 

 coast of Kau, where I saw a small flock of curlew the last of 

 October, I was assured by Mr. Sam Kauhane that a few actually 

 remain all summer, and he believed that some nested. 



Mr. Wilson states that he, also, was told by natives that the 

 kioea breeds in the islands. There can be no doubt that a few re- 



