106 HAWAIIAN BIRDS, 



Mr. Eben Low informs me that the nene is much attached to 

 its old nesting ground, and is wont to return season after season 

 to the same locality to deposit its eggs. This fact is well kijown 

 to the natives who, when once they find a nest, never fail to return 

 the following year to secure the young. It is when leading about 

 their young that the old birds undergo the moult, and, when de- 

 prived of their wing feathers and unable to fly, they, and the 

 young, are easily run down by the fleet-footed natives and secured. 



Mr. Palmer Wood, of Kohala, who has several pairs of nene 

 in confinement, tells me that they lay from three to six eggs, the 

 former being doubtless the more usual number. The nest of a 

 wild bird which he found in a lava flat was placed among low 

 bushes, and was made by scraping the surrounding dirt into a 

 hollow pile. The eggs are laid directly upon the earth, but finally 

 are surrounded with down plucked from the breast of the old 

 birds, after the usual manner of the Anatidw. When the bird 

 (tame or wild) temporarily leaves the nest, the down is carefully 

 disposed over the eggs, probably for the double purpose of hiding' 

 them and keeping them warm. 



Mr. Sam Kauhane also has found the nest of the wild bird on 

 the lava below Kahuku, Kau. The eggs, in this instance four in 

 number, were on the bare ground, but were encircled by a slight 

 barrier of bits of brush. 



Mr. George C. "Hewitt, of Naalehu, has kindly presented the 

 writer with two eggs, laid by one of his geese in confinement, and 

 a third was presented by Mr. C. M. Walton of Pahala. These 

 eggs are of a delicate creamy white (brown stained when long 

 set on) and measure as follows: 3.37x2.42; 3.32x2.45:3.40x2. 18. 



Description. — Adult male. Hind neck, head, cheeks, chin and throat 

 black, as also a narrow ring around lower throat; rest of neck and sides 

 of head brownish buff; feathers on throat and sides of neck narrow and 

 acute and so arranged as to disclose their black bases; above deep hoary 

 brown, feathers margined broadly with brownish white; rump and tail 

 dusky black, as also the primaries; beneath grayish brown; feathers on 

 sides and flanks with gray tips ; lower belly and under tailrcoverts white ; 

 bill and feet black. Length 23 to 28 inches, the female the smaller. 



The appearance of this handsome goose is much enhanced by 

 the arrangement of the neck feathers. These are somewhat stiff 



