Like the pintail this is one of the regular migrants that spend the winter months in the Hawaiian group. We secured specimens at Honokahau pond near Kailua, Hawaii in December 1891. I collected two that landed in the reservoir at Koele, Lanai in December 1916. There are no streams or ponds except water storage reservoirs on Lanai and the only ducks that come there are stragglers from other islands or the mainland. A flock of ducks which were probably of this species were arriving at the Kanaha pond on Maui when I was therein January 1943. They had been out foraging elsewhere and were coming back to the sanctuary for the day.
ORDER FALCONIFORMES
| ACCIPITRIDAE | Hawk and Osprey Family |
HAWAIIAN HAWK
| Buteo solitarius Peale | Plate 3, Figs. 1, 2 & 3 |
Hawaiian name: lo.
For a long time, according to Professor H. W. Henshaw, the two distinct phases of color in this interesting species were not understood. He concluded that the adult dark phase is mostly blackish brown and the young are also blackish brown but not so dark as the adult. The light phase is mostly buff with some variations; the young of this phase have the head and neck light buff, upper parts dark brown and under parts buff. Henshaw gives the length of the adult male about 15 1/2 inches; of adult female, about 18 inches."
Henshaw lived ten years in Hilo, Hawaii, near the haunts of this bird and collected a large series of specimens of all stages. Perkins had also stuffed the species but thought with others that those with the light phase were young birds. He had seen several nests in Kona but the parent birds were in all cases dark in color. However, he did not doubt the correctness of Henshaw's observations.
The io is endemic to the island of Hawaii and is well distributed over the island from about 2,000 to 5,000 feet elevation. It favors the outer, more open forest rather than the very dense rain forest. In the eighteen nineties it was fairly common in some localities. It is now reduced in numbers but is still well distributed over the island.
This hawk is a strong flier and rises high in the air in its courtship flights, squeaking as the pairs wheel in wide circles one high above the other. When hunting it sits still on a low tree watching for rats and mice. I have been told it also follows mynahs till it tires them; when the mynah tires it seeks the ground and the hawk pounces on it. The native birds, keeping much to the trees, are probably little molested by it Neither Perkins nor Henshaw found evidence of its attacking native birds. Both concluded that the io is a useful bird and does little harm. Our observations coincided with those of the two eminent scientists. The birds we killed were gorged with mice, rats, spiders, hawkmoths and caterpillars. Feeding on spiders was detrimental to them, as the webs clogged their feathers and formed in solid masses round their claws and eventually disabled some of them. Only on one occasion when I was with the Rothschild expedition were there remains of birds in the stomachs of any we examined. In that case it was parts of a ricebird. They do kill birds occasionally but during the eighteen nineties rats and mice furnished their principal food. Sportsmen and farmers condemn the bird and it is difficult to obtain protection for it. It should be protected as its usefulness exceeds its harmfulness.
The nest of the io is a massive structure built of twigs and sticks secure in a tree not a great height from the ground. Perkins states that the old birds are very bold when there are young in the nest and are driven away only with difficulty.
1. Mallard Duck—male
2. Mallard Duck—female
3. Pintail Duck—male
4. Pintail Duck—female
5. Lesser Scaup Duck—male
6. Lesser Scaup Duck—female
7. Canvasback Duck—male
8. Canvasback Duck—female
9. American White-fronted Goose
10. Baldpate—male
11. Baldpate—female
12. Shoveller Duck—male
13. Shoveller Duck—female
14. Lesser Snow Goose
1. Bristle-thighed Curlew
2. Wandering Tattler
3. Hawaiian Stilt
4. Noddy Tern
5. Hawaiian Tern
6. Gray-backed Tern
ORDER GALLIFORMES
| PHASIANIDAE | Pheasant, Quail and Partridge Family |
HAWAIIAN FOWL
Gallus gallus gallus (Linnaeus)
Other name: Wild Chicken. Hawaiian name: Moa. (Moa is also the Maori name for a gigantic wingless and now extinct chicken-like bird of New Zealand. The first Polynesian immigrants, who reached New Zealand while the bird was still extant, evidently connected it with the chickens they had long known.)
The descendents of the wild jungle fowl, here when Captain Cook discovered the group, may be considered native birds though many thousand miles from their original habitat During the course of their migrations they undoubtedly changed from wild to at least semi-domestic, finally reverting here in Hawaii to their original wild state. We can only conjecture the course of their changes, as migratory peoples carried the birds with them from place to place: from the Asiatic mainland through the Malays to Polynesia, then with these hardy voyagers to Hawaii. Such migrations cover many generations, so it is unthinkable that birds closely accompanying these nomads did not take on domestication. Nor can we know how soon after being released in Hawaii they reverted and again ran wild in the forests. They may even have crossed with the imported domestic fowls and taken their offspring with them.
The fowls we saw in the forests at Makaweli had somewhat the appearance of game fowl. They were rather small and of neat appearance. Of two shot January 27, 1891, one old male had silver hackles and beautiful golden back, his under parts slate blue, his spurs nearly an inch long. Another had blood-red hackles, under parts and tail blue-black, spurs not grown. A cock and hen were shot on February 7, 1891. The cock, an old bird, measured 32.5 inches from tip of bill to end of tail, in the flesh, following curves, tail 17.75 inches. Hackles gold, tail black and white, primaries mostly white, secondaries and under parts steel gray with a rusty patch on the secondaries, a red band ran across his wing-coverts and back. The spurs were curved and nearly two inches long; comb, face, ears and wattles red; bill gray; legs and feet white; iris light red. The hell was 19.38 inches long; neck light gold; above brown with a light line down the center of most of the feathers; under parts a rusty color; comb, face, and wattles red; bill light brown; legs bluish slate; iris light red.
It is known that the Hawaiians kept them for food, sacrifice and the sport of cock fighting. The feathers were also used for making kahilis.
At the time we were collecting throughout the islands they were numerous at Gay and Robinson's Makaweli ranch on Kauai where they frequented the outer parts of the forest. They were less common in other parts of the island though we saw some at Hanalei; also at Halemanu where Mr. Knudsen had taken them from Makaweli, as domestic fowls did not thrive there. The wild birds did well and are still there. I saw them near Kokee in that vicinity in 1936. I heard hens cackle in the Kona forest in 1891 and in the Oahu forest in 1935 but was not certain that they were the real wild birds. Mr. Charles Gay took them to Lanai about 1902 where they still exist. They fly fairly