96 THE CONDOR Vol. {XXII 
in the Islands. Although he had made no very extensive collection of Hawaiian 
birds he was much interested in the subject, and was always ready to impart 
any information he had in respect to their haunts and habits. He presented 
me with the first and only specimen I ever saw of the shearwater (Puffmus 
newellt), which he had obtained on the island of Maui, and which I deseribed 
~ as new. He still lives in Hilo, where he is Inspector for the Division of Plant 
Inspection of the Territory, and still maintains his interest in birds. 
HAWAIIAN BIRDS AND THEIR FOREST HOME 
As soon as strength permitted I abandoned the camera largely and began 
to find my way into the dense tropical forests, much of which is impassable 
except by cutting one’s way through the tangled jungle of ferns, creeping 
vines, and shrubbery, or by the infrequent trails made by the coffee planters. 
Hawaiian birds had been studied and collected by several before my time, not- 
ably by the English collectors, R. C. L. Perkins, Scott B. Wilson, and Henry 
Palmer, the latter of whom, with an assistant, collected for the Honorable 
Walter Rothschild. 
These three collections each furnished the occasion of a valuable treatise 
on Hawaiian birds, and the volumes issued by Palmer and Rothschild were 
beautifully illustrated. These, however, because of their cost, were accessible 
only to the few, and after devoting much time for several years to collecting 
and studying Hawaiian birds, especially those of the large Island of Hawaii, 
I wrote the little octavo volume of 146 pages entitled ‘‘Birds of the Hawaiian 
Islands’’, which was published by G. Thrum of Honolulu in 1902. By this 
means I hoped to leave some tangible evidence of my stay in the Isiands, and, 
much more important, to place within reach of all a dependable account of the 
island birds. Subsequently my collection of Hawaiian birds was acquired by 
the Bishop Museum, which seemed to me its natural abiding place. 
The indigenous birds of the Hawaiian Islands are unique in many partic- 
ulars, both of structure and habits. They shun the neighborhood of settle- 
ments, and live in the deep forests far from man and his works, and thus one 
might spend a lifetime in the islands near the coast and never see a Hawaiian 
bird. The forest proper on the largest island of the group is, indeed, a uniform 
distance of about three miles from the ocean, this broad strip having been 
cleared of its original growth for agricultural purposes, particularly the culti- 
vation of sugar cane. The forest undergrowth is dense, the trees tall and cov- 
ered with epiphytic vines and shrubs, so that collecting under these circum- 
stances is exceedingly difficult. 
Nor is progress in these forests without real danger. Aside from the risk 
of losing one’s way in this sea of vegetation, there are innumerable ‘‘blow 
holes’’ in the lava, many of which are so masked with ferns and grass that it 
requires the greatest care and watchfulness to avoid them, while to fall into 
one would be almost sure death. Under such conditions a good retriever is 
worth his weight in gold to the collector, and many a rare bird my own setter, 
Pilikia, saved for me and science. 
BIRD PROTECTION IN HAWAII 
When I first reached the islands there were practically no laws affording 
any real measure of protection to Hawaiian birds. Subsequently I drew up a 
law which was introduced into the Legislature in the form of a bill but failed - 
of passage. Later, however, the same law with modifications was enacted, and 
