10 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL. MUSEUM. 



Frigate Shoals, Gardner Rock, Laysan, Lisiansky, Midway, Cure, and Morell. 

 Laysan is eight hundred miles northwest-by-west from Honolulu, and is per- 

 haps best known as being the home of countless albatrosses. We sighted the 

 Island early one morning in May, lying low on the horizon, with a great cloud 

 of sea birds hovering over it. On all sides the air was lively with terns, al- 

 batrosses, and boobies, and we l)egan to gain some notion of what a pande- 

 monium the distant swarm was raising. We landed on the west side, where 

 there is a narrow passage through the breakers, which curl with beautiful hues 

 on the coral reef, and then sweep shoreward with flying foam. 



Laysan is a slightly elevated atoll, rudely quadrilateral in contour, and 

 suggests a shallow basin or platter. It is three miles long by one and one-half 

 broad. In the center is a wholly enclosed lagoon, covering perhaps one hundred 

 acres. This is surrounded by a broad, level plain, that part nearest the very 

 saline waters of the lagoon being destitute of any vegetable life. From this 

 plain the land rises as a gentle sandy slope to a low divide or rim (about 

 twenty-five feet above the water) near the sea beach. Not a tree breaks the 

 monotonous expanse, but instead are low bushes (Chenopodium sandwiclieum, 

 Santalum freycinetianum, Scaevola Icoenigi) and broad areas of high, tussocky 

 grass. On the narrow seaward slope the turf is short and wiry, and a broad 

 band between the bare shores of the lagoon and the beginning of the bush grass 

 is covered mostly with matted beds of succulent Portulaca lutea, and reddish- 

 flowered Sesiivium portulacastrum. Beautiful morning glories, yellow Tribulus 

 (reminding one of Potent ilia), showy Capparis, and numerous other flowers add 

 a bit of color to the landscape. 



Laysan is a bird paradise. Albatrosses {Diomedea immutabilis and P. 

 nigripes) by the thousands rear their young here each year, free from fear of 

 molestation or injury. More numerous even are the sooty terns {Sterna 

 fuliginosa), while the gray-back tern (.S'. Imiata), white tern (Gygis alba kitt- 

 litzi), nolo (Mlcranous haicaiiensis) , and noddy (Anous stolid us) are all 

 abundant. Attractive and interesting birds are the boobies, of which two 

 species, Siila cyanops and Sula piscator, are on the island in large numbers. 

 The droll frigate bird (Fregata aquila) is here in all the glory of his bright 

 red gular " balloon," and the splendid I'ed-tailed tropic bird {Phaethon rubricau- 

 dus) in satiny plumage of the palest rose pink, is a familiar member of the 

 community ; as he nervously flits by in the tropical sunshine his feathers glisten 

 with the lustre of burnished metal. Among the Procellariidae, the bonin petrels 

 {Aestrelata hypoleuca) may be mentioned as exceeding even the Laysan alba- 

 tross in numbers, but as they live in deep burrows one would hardly think it. 

 Next come the wedge-tailed and Christmas Island shearwaters (Pufflnns 

 cuneatus and P. tiativitatis) , which are abundant, and the rare sooty petrel 

 {Oceanodroma fuliginosa) nests in some numbers during the winter months. 



At that time, in 1902, the glories of Laysan Island were in their 

 prime and the number of breeding sea birds was at its maximum. 

 Doctor Fisher agreed with Prof. C. C. Nutting that there were, at 

 least, a million albarosses breeding on the island, in addition to all 

 the hosts of other species. The nests were so close together that the 

 birds were almost touching each other and it was difficult to walk 

 without treading on eggs. But a great change took place during 

 the next ten years, for a party of Japanese feather hunters visited 

 the island and materially reduced its wonderful bird population. 



