Gill, Douglas E., 1964
Page 44
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Transcription
Gill, Douglas E. 1964 Kauai might spoil in the heat (which was not oppressive but which was delightfully cool). Larry did the Anianiau and I started on the House. We only had one pair of small scissors between us. So it was new to try and skin birds with a minimum of equipment. Larry finished the Amakihi in about half an hour. My bird was in pretty bad shape, one leg nearly ripped off by the shot and both wings shattered. After skinning it out we decided it wasn't worth the effort or time, so I threw it out. A couple of pig hunters went by, only one of which had a freshly killed pig. We continued our slow pace, stopping once for Larry to get a nest from a tall slender shrub. It apparently had a hole in the side, was a bulky thing of coarse grass with a fine grass lining. It had this tiny white eggs in. I suspect Elapaio but it may have been one of the Honeycreepers. We finally came to the end of the road, after about a 2.5 mile hike and started off down the trail to Mohihi Stream. Larry shot an Elepaio at the corner of the road and the trail after about three shots. This trail descended rapidly and finally came to a small cabin in the clearing between two streams, I presume forks of the Mohihi. The fishermen who had their jeep parked at the end of the road were nowhere in sight. We continued hiking up the trail to the right. It ascended until it reached the top of the ridge. Larry was shooting birds along the way but continued to miss. On either side of us was a deep valley and forested ridges, nothing that appeared like a lowland swamp. We hiked along and noticed the change in birdlife: white-eyes decreased considerably and Apapane increased. I had gotten the Apapane, Anakihi, Anianiau, Ahepa, Creeper down on the road and wanted to see an Iwi very badly. Finally one flew across the trail which I