Mar., 1916 
PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 
89 
the College of Hawaii, etc. Honolulu, Ha- 
waii. The Hawaiian Gazette Co., Ltd. 1915. 
596 pp„ 117 plates. ($5.50 net.) 
A “natural history” of Hawaii has long 
been a desideratum. Every year the num- 
bers increase of those who seek our Pacific 
play-ground for health and recreation. Prof. 
Bryan has prepared an extensive hand- 
book, interestingly written and admirably 
illustrated, covering a really wide range of 
subjects. The preface states that it has 
been the aim of the author to bring together 
into one volume the more important and 
interesting facts about the Hawaiian Islands 
and their primitive inhabitants, as well as 
information concerning the native and in- 
troduced plants and animals of the group. 
“To supply a guide that would provide reli- 
able and readable information, in a form 
that would be welcomed by the general 
reading public, and, at the same time, that 
would meet the requirements of the homes, 
the schools, and the libraries of Hawaii and 
the mainland, as a convenient reference 
book, has been the author’s endeavor.” 
“The casual reader will find the body of 
the text shorn of the technical verbiage and 
scientific names that so often distract, an- 
noy and fatigue the layman. Where such 
terms have been indispensable they have 
been defined in the text, the footnotes, or 
in the index and glossary. Those who pre- 
fer their reading should rest on the firmer 
ground that definite nomenclature is sup- 
posed to impart, will find the necessary 
technical names of orders, families, genera 
and species, referred to in the text given in 
the footnotes, or in the cross-references in 
the index.” 
The book comprises an account of the na- 
tive Hawaiian people; the geology, geogra- 
phy, and topography of the islands; the 
flora of the group; agriculture and horticul- 
ture; and a treatise on the animal life, oc- 
cupying some seventeen chapters out of a 
total of thirty-seven. Chapters 22 to 25 are 
devoted to ornithology, the subject having 
been treated under the following subheads: 
Introduced Birds; Birds of the Sea; Birds 
of the Marsh, Stream and Shore; Birds of 
the Mountain Forests. 
Unquestionably the most interesting birds 
of the main islands are those belonging to 
the Drepanididae which includes the major- 
ity of song birds of Hawaii, and “is perhaps 
the most remarkable example of the evolu- 
tion of a group of birds to be found any- 
where. While they are much alike in their 
general structure, they differ amazingly in 
the form of the bill and also exhibit strik- 
ing differences in the color of the plumage. 
In almost all other families the form of 
the bill is quite uniform among the species 
that belong to it. But among the Drepani- 
didae of Hawaii we find them fitted by their 
structure to almost every kind of life for 
which a song bird in the tropics can become 
adapted. This adaptation of the bill has led 
to some most remarkable changes. From 
the firm, straight bill of the genus Oreo- 
mystis — the genus supposed to most closely 
conform with the ancestral form which may 
have come from America in very remote 
time, and the form from which all the other 
genera of the family are supposed to have 
evolved — we have widely different types of 
bills developed.” One line of modification 
ends in a long, slender, and singularly 
curved bill with a tubular tongue, especially 
adapted to securing the nectar from long 
tubular flowers. Another terminates in 
Chloridops kona — a grosbeak-like bird that 
feeds on the flint-hard seeds of the bastard 
sandal-wood. 
Unfortunately these queer, musky, ano- 
malies are paying the penalty of extreme 
specialization. Confined, as many of them 
are, to very special foods, they are unable 
to meet the radically changed conditions in- 
cident to deforestation. Of a total of fifty- 
six living and extinct passerine birds which 
have been known to exist in the forests of 
the inhabited islands of the group, sixteen 
are now regarded as definitely extinct, 
while in the last decade other species have 
become very rare in districts where they 
were regarded as fairly common. Probably 
it is only a question of a short time before 
all but the least specialized will disappear. 
One hundred and seventeen half-tone 
plates illustrate the work. The figures of 
the birds are mostly from the plates of Wil- 
son and Evans’s Aves Hawaiienses. Almost 
all the other plates of the book are from 
photographs direct from nature, or from 
prepared specimens. A very full, often an- 
notated, index completes the work and ren- 
ders easily accessible its extensive store of 
information. The text and illustrations, it 
may be added, are clearly and well printed, 
on good dull-finished paper. 
The author is to be congratulated for pro- 
ducing a work which will give pleasure to 
many, undoubtedly stimulate interest, and 
long remain a standard reference work on 
the natural history of Hawaii. — W. K. 
Fisher. 
Birds in their Economic Relation to 
Man, by Richard C. McGregor (Ornitholo- 
gist, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.). 
[Philippine Bureau of Science, press bulle- 
