Judge Dole states that the plovers appear at the end of August and leave again early in 

 May, and that the flocks "always assemble at the eastern or north-eastern shore of the 

 Islands preparatory to starting." These flocks have often been encountered on the 

 high seas, and considerable interest attaches to Professor Forbes's account of one such 

 instance recorded by Professor Newton in a communication to ' Nature ' for 1879 (vol. xix. 

 p. 580). The latter says, speaking of the Sandwich Islands : — " Prof. George Forbes 

 .... informs me that when there, on the occasion of the transit of Venus, he shot 

 scores of these birds, and that his friend Capt. Cator, E.N., of H.M.S. Scout, having 

 sailed thence, was overtaken in mid-ocean by them, flying in a direct line for Vancouver's 

 Island, on arriving at which he found they had already reached it." This would imply 

 that these migrants are birds which breed in or near Alaska, and have nothing in 

 common with the bands that pour down by another route from Asia to the South 

 Pacific, reaching far within the confines of Australasia. 



In April, shortly before their departure, plovers are in the best condition, and 

 indeed become so fat that they frequently burst on falling to the ground when shot : 

 I met with them, however, in the greatest numbers in December on the plains of 

 Waimea, where they may be seen in thousands, and their clear musical note may be 

 heard on every side. During a tour along the sea-coast of Hawaii — from Kawaihae to 

 Kiholo — made in the same month with my friend Mr. F. Spencer we had excellent 

 plover-shooting, waiting for the birds as evening fell and shooting them as they came 

 down to the shore to feed. I think the Golden Plover is the finest bird for the table 

 of all those found in the Hawaiian Islands, and resident sportsmen there agree with 

 me : in December, when the plains are covered with large grubs called by the natives 

 " poko," the birds feed largely on them and fatten amain. 



In olden times the islanders were very expert in snaring them, but like other of 

 their former arts the method has been forgotten, or the present generation is too 

 lazy to practice it. I am indebted to Mr. F. Spencer for one of the " Kolea stones " 

 used for the capture, which is a piece of smooth lava, grooved to receive a hair-noose. 

 The natives used to set many hundreds of these snares, and on the authority of 

 Mr. Spencer enormous numbers were caught, the women and girls being quite as 

 expert as the men at the practice — a remark which also applies to the capture of the 

 various forest-birds described in this work. 



