11 (Di.) 



AVIFAUNA 07' LATSAN, ETC. 



M T called on the Catholic Brothers again, who have a local collection of birds. They gave 

 me in exchange a Tropic-bird that had been captured not far from Honolulu. I think it is 

 different from the one I collected before. 



"I had another look at the Iiwi (Vestiaria coccinea) of Brother Matthias, with the short 

 lower mandible, and now it seems to me a Creak of nature, although the bill seems more 

 slender. [This is a specimen with the half of the lower mandible wanting, so that the 

 bill looks like that of a Heterorhynchus. — W. R.] 



"To-night I depart for Eilo. 



" Thursday, October 13///.— Tuesday night I left Maalaea Bay, Maui, in the steamer 

 < Kinau,' and after calling at Makena we made a start to cross the channel, reaching Maukona 

 8.30 on Wednesday morning. Here we stayed till noon, when another start was made for 

 Kawaihae, and we finally reached Silo, Hawaii, at 3.30 this morning, after a fair passage. 

 About 11 o'clock I came across Ahulan, my birdcatcher, who tells me be could not find 

 another Mamo (Drepanis pacifica), although they have been up several times. He also says 

 that ' Aku' is not in flower yet ; so after all 1 have come over too early, but I intend to go 

 up for a few days, to see what changes have taken place in the vegetation and try to secure 

 some more Great Amakihi ( Viridonia sagittirostris). 



"Wednesday, October 19th. — After reading the last report this date will surprise you, but 

 unfortunately through an accident I have not been able to write my diary up. No sooner 

 had I mounted my horse to start up the mountain, when the horse reared up and threw 

 himself over backwards on the top of me. Yesterday only I managed to commence my 

 journey on a mule kindly lent to me by a Mr. Pladen. 



** I had engaged two natives as carriers, and we reached the banana-houses on the slopes 

 of Mauna Kea at 2 o'clock. I was very glad of this, as my spine seems strained and troubled 

 me very much. However, to-day I have been out hunting, though I have not walked far. 

 I killed an ' Akialoa ' and an ' Akakane,' thinking they were something else. 



" It is valuable to be here at the time when the high trees are flowering, for so many birds 

 come to the flowers to suck the nectar from them. I was afraid I would come too late for the 

 best flower-season, but see now that I am too early. The flower ' aku ' only a few are in 

 bloom yet. Ahulan, the old birdcatcher, thinks the Mamo might be seen again on these 

 flowers in about three weeks. He was up last week and did not hear or see one ; none the 

 less he is full of hopes, but I am not. 



" October 20th. — There is much rain now, and I must cut out trenches all round my 

 camp to keep the water off. 



" Mongooses are unfortunately very numerous here and cannot be kept out of the house. 

 One of them ran away with two bird-skins I made yesterday." 



All the time until October 28th Palmer tried to get new information about Drepanis pacifica 

 and to interest a number of natives in this bird, but did not collect anything worth speaking of. 



"From October 21st to November 2nd Palmer tried to collect at several places on Hawaii, 

 but did not have any success at all. 



On the 3rd of November he landed at Maunalei on the island of Lanai. 

 Lanai or Kanai lies 7 miles to the west of West-Maui. It is a dome-shaped island, 

 16 miles in length and 4 to 10 miles in width, much higher than Kahoolawe, but neither so 

 high nor broken as some of the other islands, its greatest altitude being about 3000 feet. 



