Destruction by Man 59 



stroying some. They were in the grass and the 

 bushes, on the ground by hundreds of thousands, 

 and in many places it was difficult to walk on 

 account of the burrows of petrels and shearwaters 

 into which one would sink to the knees at almost 

 every step. There were birds overhead, birds 

 under foot, peering from every bush and from 

 behind every tussock of grass, scuttling about 

 over the ground after food or with flopping wings 

 attempting to lead the stranger from the vicinity 

 of their homes. Red-tailed tropic birds, boobies, 

 man-o'-war birds, rails, teal, bristle-thighed 

 curlews, golden plovers, trunstones, honey-eaters, 

 finches, and miller-birds, each species busy with 

 its own affairs, which not infrequently involved 

 interference with the affairs of others. 



And more remarkable perhaps even than the 

 great numbers of the birds was their tameness. 

 The great albatrosses would literally meet a 

 visitor half-way and gather about him, gently 

 examining the texture of his clothing with their 

 bills and in other ways seeming to take as much 

 interest in his affairs as he did in theirs. 



Mr. Fisher's experience with the Laysan rail 

 will give some idea of how trustful of man birds 

 may be if they never have cause to regard him as 

 an enemy. This tiny brown bird is flightless; 

 its wings are not used at all except when the rail 



