98 Director's Annual Report. 



members of the party did nothing but catch and kill the birds for 

 the especialh" trained taxidermists to skin. The bird-catchers did 

 their work for the most part early in the morning or during the 

 evening hours. This enabled them to select fine adult specimens 

 that were at sea fishing during the da3\ Their equipment con- 

 sisted simply of a bambu pole, or occasionally a net on a long 

 pole, and a large light basket. One man in two hours will kill a 

 basket full of birds. In one of these baskets I counted seventy- 

 five perfect specimens. The skinning is accomplished at an aston- 

 ishingly rapid rate. One man, they assured me, held the world's 

 record for making bird skins, having made in one day of ten hours, 

 under test conditions, one hundred and thirty complete skins. In 

 such undertakings quantity, not quality, is the thing chiefly con- 

 sidered. As a result, few indeed were the skins that would have 

 been received in a museum colledlion. The average day's work 

 fell far below this record pace ; probably the usual number would 

 not exceed fifty skins. Still, during the six months from March 

 to September not less than fifty thousand birds are there slaugh- 

 tered as a sacrifice to the cruel goddess of fashion. 



The birds were in all stages of development, from the downy 

 nestling, just showing a few pin feathers, to the young of the year 

 which were able to go to sea and secure their own food. The 

 chicks, when very young, are streaked with brownish gray and dull 

 white on the back, while below the}^ are a uniform whitish color. 

 This down soon begins to give way to the pin feathers which 

 follow the down capsules as a continuation of the same shafts. 

 The feathers appear over the back and wings first, followed by 

 the feathers on the lower parts. In the meantime the wing quills 

 and rectrices have partially developed ; the head is the last to 

 feather. Often the down remains about the base of the beak until 

 the bird is able to fly short distances. 



The parent birds here, as elsewhere, make no attempt at build- 

 ing a nest. Since they prefer to sit on the sandy shore, and on hot 

 days to retreat a little farther inland under the shade of the trees, 

 they deposit their single egg any place the}" happen to be at nest- 

 ing time. Though the}- rarely go farther than three or four hun- 

 dred yards inland, their young and eggs are to be found occupy- 

 ing almost every square yard of this Sooty Tern belt, which runs 

 on the upper beach pra(5lically the entire distance around the island. 



