110 HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 



neck and lower parts brownish white ; head and neck streaked with dusky ; 

 sides and flanks with dusky spots; belly usually speckled with white. 

 Length from 13 to 15 inches. 



Anas wyvilliana, Schlatet. Koloa. 



The little native duck, or koloa as the natives call it, is widely 

 spread over the archipelago, no island being without it. Upon the 

 island of Hawaii the koloa used to be numerous, being by no 

 means uncommon about Hilo, the type locality, as recently as five 

 years ago. But as the mongoose has increased in numbers, the 

 koloa has diminished, and it is no longer found immediately about 

 Hilo at all, while it is becoming comparatively scarce in other 

 parts of the island. I believe that generally speaking the bird is 

 becoming less numerous upon all the islands, both because of the 

 attacks of the mongoose and because it is more sought after by 

 sportsmen than formerly. 



The old birds of course are rarely killed by the mongoose, which 

 never pursues its prey into the water, except when setting. As the 

 koloa, like most other ducks, makes its nest upon the land the 

 setting birds and their eggs must frequently fall easy prey to the 

 keen nosed and fearless mongoose. 



The koloa is a fresh water duck, although by no means entirely 

 absent from the coast, and it loves to follow the windings of the 

 little mountain stream as they thread their way through the 

 tangled woods, here and there forming little pools of still water. 

 It is in such localities, rather than near the coast, that this duck 

 usually nests. 



In localities where unharrassed the koloa is tame and unsus- 

 picious, and its destruction is easily compassed by the sportsman. 



In October of 1899 a pair of these ducks was shot at Kaalualu 

 on the coast of Kau, Hawaii, by Mr. Bertelmann and presented to 

 the writer. Upon dissection the stomachs of both birds were 

 found to be crammed with two species of small fresh and brackish 

 water shells. The larger of the two proves to be the Melania 

 newconibii Lea which abounds in all the islands of the group. The 

 smaller has been identified by Mr. C. F. Ancey as the Hydrobia 

 porrectamigh. 



