Preface
A history of the indigenous birds of the Hawaiian Islands upon which I was engaged was laid aside when with, the war a large influx of population brought a demand for a more popular work on the birds of Hawaii. No complete work on these birds has been published since 1903, so I have made an attempt to fill this need.
Though not a professional ornithologist I have for many years been keenly interested in the Hawaiian birds. I was closely associated with the investigations of the Hawaiian birds in the last two decades of the nineteenth, century, having been assistant to Mr. H. C. Palmer, Lord Rothschild's collector, for 15 months of collecting on these islands, and closely associated with Dr. R. C. L. Perkins during his 10 years of investigation of the land fauna of the main group and afterwards in his 18 years of work in economic entomology in connection with Hawaii.
The several investigations of the former period resulted in the publication of "Birds of the Sandwich Islands" (1890-99) by Scott B. Wilson and A. H. Evans; "Avifauna of Laysan" (1893-1900) by Walter Rothschild; "Birds of the Hawaiian Islands" (1902) by H. W. Henshaw; and "Aves" (in "Fauna Hawaiiensis," 1903) by R. C. L Perkins. All these works are long out of print
My work for 40 years was much in the open country and closely associated with the Hawaiian forests and their birds. Since 1920 I have been honorary Associate in Ornithology with Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, furnishing a report to that institution each year. In cooperation with the Bishop Museum, Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry and Hui Manu (the latter a society for importing birds), I made a personal bird survey of the main group (1935-37) spending at least a month on each forested island. I am therefore able to connect the investigations of the 1890's with the renewed activities, of recent years in connection with the avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands.
In 1937 in cooperation with the United States Biological Survey (now the Fish and Wildlife Service) I inaugurated leg banding of sea birds on local offshore islands and this was later extended to eight outer islands reaching to south of the Equator. One of my outlying island cooperative bird banding associates was killed by Japanese shell fire at the start of the war. Of course this work is at present to some extent retarded. It is hoped that after the war it will be much extended in the Pacific and valuable information thus obtained on the movements of the Hawaiian sea birds.
Sometimes a sentiment appears against bird collecting. But as a matter of fact bird collectors are among the strongest advocates for bird conservation and protection. The number of birds taken by collectors is extremely small compared with what are lost by preventable causes. Localities are sometimes declared sanctuaries and left to themselves. Under primeval conditions the balance of nature would take care of the birds. But as a rule the balance of nature has already been disrupted by man. So if the birds are to be saved sanctuaries must be under supervision.
The term "Main Group" when referred to in this book means the group of large islands from Hawaii to Niihau; "Hawaiian Chain" applies to the chain of islands running northwest from the main group to Ocean Kure Island.
The use of "we" refers to the Rothschild expedition. Measurements of total lengths of birds are taken from various works as a partial guide for comparison. Without knowing the system by which these measurements were taken they can be considered only as approximate, especially in small perching birds. A bird measured in the flesh by contour from tip of bill to end of tail, as practiced by the Rothschild expedition, may differ considerably from the measurement in a straight line from tip of bill to end of tail as used by some other authors. If taken from a dried skin, much depends on the system of preparing and filling it. With rare birds Rothschild sometimes gives the measurement in the flesh as well as in the dried specimen but in common birds the difference is often greater through hurried preparation under difficult field conditions. Measurements I have taken in recent years, as in the imported doves quoted, were taken in the flesh following the curvature.
The principal measures taken for protection of the Hawaiian birds have been the passing by the Hawaiian Legislature in 1907, of a law to protect the native perching birds, and a proclamation by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 setting aside the Hawaiian Chain of Islands running from the main group to Ocean or Kure Island, except Midway, as a Bird Reservation. Both partially failed in their object. The first was strictly enforced, but it could not exclude the bird diseases and insured no opportunities to study or combat those that might already have been introduced. The other failed in part for lack of facilities for inspection and care. Research work of late years carried on under Superintendent Edward G. Wingate at the Hawaii National Park will be of considerable help in saving the remnant of our interesting forest birds.
My thanks are due to Major Edwin H. Bryan, Jr. for permission to use his check list of Hawaiian Birds as published in "The Elepaio" and to Mr. Edward L. Caum for permission to use material from his "Exotic Birds of Hawaii," which have saved me a great deal of work, to the Fish and Wild-life Service, in connection with birdbanding, to Mr. Edward G. Wingate for responsive assistance in connection with the Hawaiian birds of the Hawaii National Park and for permission to use his foreman's reports, to Lieutenant Richard B. Black and officers of'the Navy in facilitating research work on Hawaiian sea birds on' the southern islands, to the youths and others who have cooperated with me in birdbanding research on local and outlying islands, to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. Pacific Fleet, for response to appeals for bird protection on the offshore and outlying islands under the wartime control of the navy, thus assisting in future research work, as well as in conservation of the birds.
For information I am indebted to Mrs. Dora P. Isenberg, Mrs. Helen Shiras Baldwin, Messrs. C. S. Childs, Paul H. Baldwin, Walter R. Donaghho, Fred
