Birds of Hawaii. George C. Munro
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Class is subdivided into ORDERS, the Orders again into FAMILIES, the Families into GENERA and the Genera into SPECIES. Each of these subdivisions refines the grouping a little further, and many ornithologists even divide the Species again into SUBSPECIES. In the technical names of the birds listed here, printed in Bold-face, the first name is the Genus, the second is the Species. The third name, if there is one, is the Subspecies. The name in ordinary type following the technical name is that of the person who first published a description of the species in scientific literature. Where the describer's name is in parenthesis it denotes that there has been some change made in it afterwards.
In the treatment that follows the birds are grouped according to their natural relationships, but only in the section dealing with the native birds are the orders (names ending in formes) indicated. In the sections on the occasional visitants and the imported birds this is omitted, the largest division noted being the family (names ending in idae). Many birds are known by several vernacular or common names; in this work the best known or the most appropriate are. used as the major headings for the discussion of the individual species, the others, whether English or Hawaiian or both being given in italics. Where the significance of the Hawaiian name is known, or the reason for its application, that too is noted as an item that might be of interest, especially to those to whom the Hawaiian tongue is completely unknown. No attempt has been made to include the technical synonymy, as a complete listing would be unduly cumbersome and out of place in a work of this sort, and a partial list would be of no value to anyone.
In the arrangement of this book and in the nomenclature I have followed a checklist carefully worked out by Major Edwin H. Bryan, Jr., Curator of Collections with the Bishop Museum and published in "The Elepaio," the organ of the Honolulu Audubon Society. To save space for information on the native Hawaiian birds I have reduced descriptions and have not gone into detail on occasional visitants and imported birds as these can be found in other books, For the native birds, Wilson, Rothschild and Henshaw give detailed descriptions and Edward L. Caum gives good descriptions of the imported birds in his "Exotic Birds of Hawaii." The colored plates herein, adapted in the main from those of Wilson and Rothschild, give a good idea of the Hawaiian birds.
Books consulted are: Birds of the Sandwich Islands, by S. B. Wilson and A. H. Evans, London, 1890-1899; Avifauna of Laysan and the Adjacent Islands, by Walter Rothschild, London, 1893-1900; Birds of the Hawaiian Islands, by H. W. Henshaw, Honolulu, 1902; Aves (Fauna Hawaiiensis, vol. 1, part 4) by R. C. L Perkins, Cambridge, 1903; Exotic Birds of Hawaii (B. P. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers, vol. 10 No. 9) by E. L. Caum, Honolulu, 1933; Familiar Hawaiian Birds, by J. d'A. Northwood, Honolulu, 1940; Check List of Birds Reported from the Hawaiian Islands, compiled by E. H. Bryan, Jr., published serially in The Elepaio (vol. 1 no. 12, April 1941 to vol. 2 no. 12, June 1942); Reports of Paul H. Baldwin to the Superintendent of the Hawaii National Park, 194l; Game Birds of California, by J. Grinnell, H. C Bryant and T. I. Storer, Berkeley, 1918; Nests and Eggs of North American Birds, by O. Davie, Philadelphia, 1898; Birds of America edited by T. G. Pearson, New York, 1936; The Book of Birds, by the National Geographic Society, Washington, 1927; New Zealand Birds, by W. R. B. Oliver, Wellington, 1930; What Bird Is That? by N. W. Cayley, Sydney, 1932; The Bird Book, by N. Blanchan, New York, 1939; Birds of the Ocean, by W. B. Alexander, New York, 1928; jungle Fowls from Pacific Islands (B. P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 108) by S. C Ball, Honolulu, 1933; various publications by W. Alanson Bryan; in addition much use has been made of Perkins' unpublished journals and correspondence, and my own field notes subsequent to December, 1890.
I am indebted to a number of persons for the use of the photographs reproduced herein. These are acknowledged individually.
White tern (Gygis alba rothschildi). Parent bird at the nesting place feeding young and holding 3 small fish crosswise in its bill.
Photo by courtesy of the Bishop Museum-
Native Hawaiian Birds
SEA BIRDS
Against the illimitable blue of the sky, over the unfathomable blue of the ocean the sea birds of the Pacific wing the cycle of their lives. For them the ocean is a larder: the islands and atolls their mating ground and nurseries. In the air on the wing what can compare with the wild majesty of the giant albatross riding the air currents with effortless ease, wide pinions spread as the bird glides and swoops against the sun. The plummeting dive of the gannets upon their fishy prey, the dipping sweep of the shearwaters close to the sparkling wave, the bat-like, fluttering of the tiny petrel, the vigorous flap flap of the booby returning to its nest, and the questing rise and fall of the white-tailed tropic bird against the cliff faces, all proclaim the species to the knowing eye.
First in the most recent classification of Hawaiian birds come members of the order of Petrels. The distinguishing features of this order are well defined viz. a strongly hooked bill covered with horny plates, and nostrils in tubes. The three front toes are fully webbed, hind toe small or absent.
There are ten species that range the ocean surrounding the Hawaiian group, and nest on islands of the Hawaiian Chain, on the large mountainous islands of the main group and small islands off their shores. Included in these species are birds of size as great as 33 inches long with a wing spread of over 7 feet and small birds not over 8 inches long. Two are albatrosses; three are shearwaters, less than half the size of the albatrosses; two are medium sized petrels; one, between the medium sized petrels and the storm petrels; and two storm petrels.
All these birds are undoubtedly surface feeders, the larger species flying all day and settling on the water at night to feed on squids and fishes that come to the surface at that time. Storm petrels generally pick up their food from the surface of the water as they skim the waves, some of them, using their feet to support them and seeming to walk on the water. The Hawaiian species can be seen to skim the surface and no doubt capture their food in the same way but cannot be studied closely as they do not follow ships as is the habit of some others. They only approach ships when attracted by their lights. The few I have examined had only a slimy substance and some little pieces of light pumice stone in their stomachs. It is generally supposed that most species of this order leave their young when full grown and very fat to finish their development alone, absorbing their fat and eventually following their parents to sea. It is more likely that the old birds return at long intervals and eventually conduct the young birds to the feeding grounds.
Some of these birds were found in countless numbers when man first came in contact with them. Their span of life must be very great as most of them lay but one egg a year and at times there is considerable mortality in the young. Many species will suffer unavoidable reduction in this war. When peace comes every effort should be made to encourage their recovery. Some of the species that nested on the larger islands are already on the verge of extinction through causes other than war. No effort should be spared to save these vanishing species.
White tern (Gygis alba rothschildi Hartert), from a photograph by Donald R. Dickey, Tanager Expedition, 1923.
Photo by courtesy of the Bishop Museum.
1. Black-footed Albatross
2. Laysan Albatross
3. I.aysan Albatross, Chick partly fledged
1. Pacific Golden Plover
2. Black-crowned Night Heron
3. Ruddy Turnstone
4. Sanderling
5. Australian Gallinule
ORDER PROCELLARIIFORMES
| DIOMEDEIDAE | Albatross Family |
BLACK-FOOTED