A FAR ADVENTURE 307 



you said he was a relative of the Dodo. Most of 

 those queer birds seemed to have lived on islands. 

 Are there any of them where we're going?" 



''Yes," the Feather Man replied; ''there is one, 

 a flightless Eail, much like the Sora, only smaller, 

 which is called wingless. Where it came from is a 

 mystery. It may have flown from Hawaii, thou- 

 sands of years ago, for there is a related species 

 there which is fairly common. As time passed 

 on, this little Eail, finding no use for its wings, 

 allowed them to pass into disuse and they 

 atrophied, which condition, being repeated down 

 through numbers of generations, made the de- 

 scendants flightless birds. 



"It is not the land birds, Shan, which have been 

 the reason for the government's setting aside these 

 Hawaiian islands as a bird reservation, but rather 

 because it is a notable refuge for sea birds. The 

 reefs and waters about Laysan and the other is- 

 lands fairly teem with fish, crustaceans, squids, 

 and other forms of sea life, thus affording food in 

 abundance for sea fowl as well as solitude and 

 protection for them and their young. For ages 

 past these ocean wanderers have found the islands 

 an ideal home, and at certain seasons swarmed 

 there, covering every bit of available territory, 



