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birds. As is well known, several island birds are already extinct, especially upon Oalui, which has been extensively deforested. Upon Hawaii the Noho {Fcnnula ecdiidata) has been extinct for years, having been extermi- nated by the domestic cat run wild. Had any of the windless Rails been fortunate enough to survive the inroads of Tabby, it would only have been to meet their fate from the mono;oose, which spares no living thing it can reach. The Namo has been exterminated for its feathers, and the ( )o must soon share the same fate. The native Duck {Anas wyvilliana) and the Gallinule upon the Island of Hawaii are rapidly diminishing under the never-ceasing attacks of the mongoose. The Puffin and the Petrel are sharing the same fate, and the native Goose is in danger, though likely to maintain itself for some time to come. The above birds have become, or are becoming, extinct from known causes, but some species have died out for no assignable reason. The Che-etoptila anvust'ipluma is a case in point. Though said to be rare in the time of Peale and Pickering, both naturalists saw it, and we may be sure that for many years subsequent to the visits of these men no change what- ever occurred in the forests. Yet from their day till now the bird has never been seen, and the natives do not know it even by name. The cause of its extinction will probably ever remr.in one of Nature's own secrets. In connection with the future of Hawaiian birds, it is not to be over- looked that upon all the islands the forest is diminishing, owing to the devastations of cattle and the ax of the settler, and the birds living in the deforested tracks must either die or be forced into the untouched areas, where soon a sharp struggle for existence must begin. Some species, like the Alala {Corvus tropicus), are restricted to certain areas beyond which they seem never to attempt to pass. In the case of the Crow, the sole reason appears to be that, having first attained a foot- hold in a comparatively dry district, the birds are unwilling or unable to encounter a moister climate, even though the windward forests adjoin their own and abound with suitable food. Viridonia furnishes a still more remarkable instance of restricted habitat. This, one of the rarest of Hawaiian birds, is confined to a forest area a few miles square, and is absolutely unknown outside its own little kingJom. That extensive deforestation should have a marked effect upon Hawaiian birds, wholly unused as they are to competition of any kind, is what we might expect ; but there remains to be recorded a still more remarkable fact indicative of the singular sensitiveness of Hawaiian birds to change. Large sections of forest land on Hawaii that have been but slightly inter- fered with by man, and that are nearly as dense and impenetrable as they ever were, have been almost wholly abandoned by birds within the last ten years. For this abandonment no reasonable explanation suggests itself.