The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-04-01
Hunting the Uau on
MOIokai
VIM. Alanson Bryan.

Although the Uau is to be seen at
the proper seasons ON the channels be-
tween the various islands of the group,
and has for generations been hunted by
the Hawaiians for food, not to mention
its having long ago been made to figure
in very popular legend of the natives,
II has continued to remain one OF the
rarest of the Hawaiian birds in museum
collections.
Up to the present, save for an I'M
mature specimen in the Bishop Museum
that was collected by Mr.. Henshaw on
the beach at Hilo, in 1900, the species
has been known only from skin from
The Sandwich Islands in the 0. 5.
National Museum mo. 61,259), collect
ed by Mr.. v. Knudsen, and a second
specimen taken by him on Kauai, now
In the British Museum. 1t is, therefore,
with considerable satisfaction that L
report on fine series of adult skins
which 7 secured on Molokai during the
month Of June.
On April 26, while at the residence
of Mr.. John Walker, in Pelekunu val
ley. I was shown, in cabinet of curl
sosities, roughly mounted specimen OF
the Uau. The bird had been collected
by Mrs. Walker three or four years be-
fore the time Of my visit, one morning,
asleep in the long grass on the hills
back of the village, and not far from
Mrs. Walkers house. The specimen
was kindly given to me for examina-
ton. The following morning, at an
early hour, I heard solitary bird call
ing from high up on the cliffs near the
village where I had spent the night.
I at once made an effort among the
natives to organize an Uau hunt. They
all agreed that it was not the proper
season for securing birds, saying that
it would be useless to make the severe
climb up the mountain to where the
birds nests were. Some weeks later,
they assured me, Uau would be much
more plentiful. As it is impossible to
find the birds burrows without special
Iy trained dogs, which only the natives
have, l was forced to give up the
project for the time being.
My next meeting with the Uau was
on May 8. l was on a two-day camp
ing trip on the Kaunuohua trail, which
heads down the pail into Pelekunu val
ley. The object of the trip was to
spend late evening and early morning
in that locality, in the hope of hear
ing the call, and, If possible, secure
specimens of the 90, since the bird,
an former times, frequented that sec
tion On the way down, at about a
350o-foot level, found the bill, wings,
feet and some loose feathers of an Uau
that had been killed and eaten by some
animal, presumably mongoose, not
more than the day before. That night
/ went into camp beside the trail in
"a drenching rain. The camp was not
an elaborate affair, simply a few ieie
vines and ferns piled on narrow shelf
on the pail, the ledge being scarcely
wide enough to lie on. The face of
the pail was almost perpendicular for
hundreds of feet above and below me-.
In fact, it was so steep that it was
necessary, as a precaution, to drive
stakes along the lower side of my bed
to prevent the possibility of its slip
ping off the edge and my rolling off
during the night.
Shortly after dark / began to hear
the strange, weird cry of these petrels,
as they sailed about the cliffs, evidently
attracted by, and much exercised over,
my campfire. All night long-long at
ter the fires had died out-they could
be heard calling here and there about
my swallow nest camp. A long
drawn out U-a-u, suggesting the wall of
a lonesome cat, would be answered by
Uau ka- ka ka-ka-ka, a note just petrol
enough to be recognized as such, yet
combining such a number of other sug-
gestlve sounds, as to render it both
understandable and unforgetable. Though
they frequently few close to me, there
was so much heavy fog that it was use,
less to shoot in the dark. besides it
would have been almost impossible to
have secured bird from the preeipice
below me if it had been killed by
chance shot. The experiences of the
might, however, Wee enough to assure
me that the petrels re about in suf
fcient numbers TO 1at an effort to
secure specimens, WI could manage
Ehe undertaking.
For the next few .ys following my
Pelekunu experience It'll the birds, l
was camped at Ha!s va and Moanui.
At the former place, although far from
any habitation and in a rugged coun-
try, / did not hear nor see single
Uau. At Moanui, on the other hand,
they were seen each evening at dusk
flying over the headlands close down
beside the sea- Three specimens were
aaken June and 6. Tt is rather curl
Gus that all the birds seen flew along
the coast toward the east, against the
wind, while later on, on the windward
side of the island, the birds were seen
TO return to their roekeries from all
directions. a possibIe explanation
would be that I'll birds prefer to fol-
low along coast Inc to their nesting
places on the op,' este side of the IS
land. rather than take the more d.
rect route over t mountains through
the fog.
A favorable OF rtunity for visiting
the nesting color of the Uau did not
come until Jun +. when I made