120 HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 



on Hilo beach November 20, 1890, in an exhausted condition,, 

 and was secured by some boys by whom it was given to Mr. New- 

 ell, after having been kept alive for several days, when it died. 



The natives inform me that the uuau is common on the fishing 

 grounds, som.e five to ten miles off the windward side of Hawaii. 

 They say also that formerly this bird nested in great numbers in 

 the lava between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. They have visited 

 the old nesting sites within a year or two, but report that they 

 are no longer occupied, having been invaded by the mongoose. 



It is said that years ago the nestlings of the uuau vv^ere con- 

 sidered a great delicacy, and were tabooed for the exclusive use 

 of the chiefs. Natives were dispatched each season to gather the 

 young birds which they did by inserting into the burrows a long 

 stick and twisting it into the down of the young which then were 

 easily pulled to the. surface.. 



The native name for this bird, it is said, can be pronounced so 

 as to exactly imitate its nocturnal cry. 



The author feels reasonably sure that this species of petrel 

 is the mysterious nightly visitor that for many years past has 

 periodically invaded the town of Hilo upon dark and stormy 

 nights, usually during the fall and winter months. The flying 

 visits of the birds usually begin about half past seven or eight and, 

 if the night be a stormy one with heavy showers of rain, the 

 "harsh, snarling cries of the bird may be heard intermittently all 

 night long, as they fly rapidly back and forth over the zone of 

 light that marks the populous part of the town. Whenever the 

 heavy tropical showers cease, the cries are stilled, and the birds 

 apparently retire to the sea; but the onset of another gust with 

 accompanying rain is ^he signal for the return of the biirds. 



It is not surprising that these invisible visitors of the darkness, 

 whose uncanny wailings come from the upper air, have excited 

 the superstitious fears of the natives, and that they should inter- 

 pret their voices as the sign of some unusual and calamitous 

 •event. 



Upon a few occasions when the rain has been resolved into a 

 iine mist and the electric light has been reflected upward as against 

 a. curtain, the writer has succeeded in getting a glimpse of the fly- 



