Hawaiian Birds in the Crater of Kilauea
Hawaiian Birds in the Crater of Kilauea
While spending some days at the Volcano House last October making a survey and sketch model of Hawaii's famous volcano, Kilauea, for the Bishop Museum, I was much interested to find that certain of the Hawaiian birds were utterly disregarding the power of nature and the presence of man and were to be found here in the very home of Madam Pele, the goddess of volcanoes. On the north side of the crater are a number of fault blocks of great size which descend step-like one after another, forming an easy descent to the floor of the crater. All of this locality is more or less thickly wooded chiefly with native Ohea. It was in this quiet retreat that the birds had taken up their abode. I noted during my stay the following species, all inside the crater proper. Phaethon lepturus was seen a number of times; on one occasion circling about over the pit of Halemaumau, where eight hundred feet below it was the burning lake of liquid lava. Buteo solitarius was seen on two occasions, and Chasiempis sandvicensis, Acridotheres tristis (introduced), Vestiaria coccinea, Himatione sanguinea, Chlorodrepanis virens, Oreomystis mana, and Phreornis obscura were all seen on more than one occasion.
WM. ALANSON BRYAN
Bishop Museum, Honolulu, H. I.
