HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 105 



contemptible foe, and it is to be hoped that this fine bird may be 

 able to hold its own m the contest. 



The mongoose is not the only, noi" the chief, foe the nene has to 

 fear, since the districts frequented by the bird most of the year, 

 though remote and inaccessible, are now often visited by sports- 

 men, and the nene is rapidly diminishing in numbers. The time 

 will inevitably come, and that soon, when this goose will need 

 protection from sportsmen to save it from its otherwise inevitable 

 fate of extermination. 



In this connection attention may well be called to the fact that, 

 as the present law stands, the open- months (from September 15 to 

 February i), when the killing of this goose is permissable, are 

 almost precisely the ones in which it rears its young. The law, 

 doubtless through a misapprehension of the facts, protects the 

 bird when it least needs protection, and exposes it to slaughter 

 when it is laying its eggs and leading about its young. 



The breeding season of the nene is a very protracted one, as is 

 that of all Hawaiian birds, and Mr. Eben Low informs us that 

 some pairs begin to lay the latter part of August, and the nesting 

 season is-not all over and the young able to shift for themselves 

 till April or even later. Thus the months that by law are now 

 open ones should be closed, and the close time extended somewhat. 



It -has been stated and seems to be the general impression that 

 the nene rears its young in the uplands where it is found in sum- 

 mer, but such is not the fact. The greater number, probably all, 

 leave the upper grounds beginning early in the fall, and resort to 

 lower altitudes, from about 1,200 feet downwards. There are 

 barren lava flats near the sea in Puna, Kona, Kau and Kohala, 

 rarely indeed visited by man, and it is to these deserted solitudes 

 that the nene resorts at the beginning of the love season. 



The cause of the desertion of the uplands by the geese for the 

 iow-lying lava flats near the sea is doubtless the failure of the 

 food supply in the former, at least of such as is adapted to the 

 wants of the young. At high altitudes there is but a scanty crop 

 of berries in winter, and most of the pualele dies ; whereas near 

 the sea there is an abundance of this plant and of freshly sprouted 

 grasses during the winter and spring months. 



