2L2 



AVIFAUXA OF L AT SAN, ETC. 



There can bo no doubt that this Rail is now quite extinct. Neither Mr. Wilson nor 

 Mr. Perkins found it. Moreover, I sent out to Palmer a dog which was specially trained 

 for the purpose of getting Kails, and he stayed a good time at Olaa without seeing a sign of 

 Hails. Not the fact that the old Hawaiian kings were fond of the Moho on the table, but 

 that the foolishly introduced mungooses swarm in the scrub-covered lava-flats south of the 

 Volcano House, halfway between Hilo and the Volcano of Kilauea, where Mr. Mills's birds 

 were caught, accounts for its extinction. These pests are so common there, that Palmer 

 could see them almost continually crossing the path when travelling through the bush. The 

 man in charge of the lower volcano house told Palmer that he shot " twenty-nine mungoose 

 last month, and three yesterday." A number of natives, encouraged by the promise of large 

 reward, searched the country for Mr. Wilson, and afterwards again for Palmer, who went out 

 shooting with his dog as long as he stayed at Olaa, but all without success. Mr. Wilson 

 was told by HaAvclu, that the mail-carrier had seen the Moho cross his path between 1884 

 and 1887, and that this bird outruns any dog. It could be discovered by the cry it utters— 

 "a whirring sound resembling the rising of a bevy of Quail," and its nest stood on the 

 ground. One of the Kanakas told Palmer that he used to catch many in former times, but 

 that now they were all " pau," e. gone. The cry, as imitated by the natives to Palmer, 

 " sounded much like that of the Laysan Hail." The natives also told Palmer that the last 

 Moho was seen in 188 1. It lived in the grass, not in swamp or wood, and, besides the 

 obnoxious mungoose, the frequent fires must have been destructive to these birds. 

 Wilson describes the locality in which the Moho lived as follows :— 



" The aspect of the region where the Moho Avas found much resembles a Scotch moor, 

 with a short densely-growing Vaccmitm in the place of heather ; this is intermingled with 

 a species of Carex and Ukiuki {Dianella ewtifolia), a bright silver-leaved plant bearing a 

 blue berry— the whole forming the thickest of cover. The only trees in this region are 

 scrubby stunted Ohias, though here and there are thickets of fern interspersed with small 

 bushes." 



