78 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: On the ground, usually on 

 isolated islands of the ocean ; there is little attempt at 

 nest building, the single egg being surrounded merely 

 by seaweed. 



Distribution. — North Pacific ; breeds on islands 

 northwest of Hawaii and on Marshall Islands; occurs 

 oflf the coast from southern Alaska to California and 

 western Mexico, and off coasts of China and Japan. 



I have a distinct picture in mind, when out on 

 the Pacific, of a big dark long-winged bird coast- 

 ing down the troughs of the waves and aeroplan- 

 ing over the mountainous crests. I scarcely ever 

 saw the bird light and feed on the water, yet of 

 course, it follows the ship for scraps. The bird 

 is more a part of the sea than the Gull. It curves 

 in great circles over the maddened sea purely for 



the love of flying. I asked its name of one of the 

 sailors and he called it a" Goony." I told hiin it 

 was a Black-footed Albatross. 



The Albatross will always be known in English 

 literature through Coleridge's poem, " The An- 

 cient Mariner." What a lesson against the 

 wanton killing of a friendly bird ! 



WlLLI.^M L. FiNLEY. 



LAYSAN ALBATROSS 

 Diomedea immutabilis Rothschild 



A. o. U. Xu 



General Description. — Length. 3 feet. Color above, 

 smoky-lirown ; color below, white. Tail, short ; wings, 

 very long and when folded reaching to or beyond tip 

 of tail. 



Color. — Head, neck, lower rump, and under parts, 

 white : back and shoulders, smoky-brown : wings and 

 their coverts, blackish-brown ; tail, black shading to 



white at base ; bill, gray, blackish at tip. yellow at base 

 below ; feet, fleshy-pink ; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — The single egg is deposited on the 

 ground on Laysan and adjacent islands of the North 

 Pacific. 



Distribution. — Laysan and Midway islands to San 

 Geronimo and Guadalupe islands, Lower California. 



The Laysan is the Albatross whose ruthless 

 slaughter and narrow escape from complete 

 extinction constitute an episode revealing the 

 most heartless and hideous brutality ever per- 

 petrated by man ujion the bird-world, which is 

 saying much. The island of Laysan, which gives 

 its name to this beautiful and interesting species 

 of one of the most wonderful of all the birds, 

 lies in the Pacific Ocean about 700 miles west by 

 north of Honolulu. It is barren, except for a 

 scanty growth of shrubs, and therefore has never 

 been inhabited by man, but for a great many 

 years had been the home and breeding place of 

 the Laysan Albatross, the Black-footed Alba- 

 tross, the Sooty, \Miite, Noddy, and Hawaiian 

 Terns, the Bonin Petrel, two species of Shear- 

 water, the Red-tailed Tropic-bird, two species 

 of Booby, and the Man-o'-war-bird. A photo- 

 graph of the island, taken in 1909, shows a great 

 plain, about a mile in area, not only covered, but 

 actually crowded, chiefly with Laysan Alba- 

 trosses. 



For several years guano had been shipped from 

 this island, and the Albatrosses were robbed more 

 or less persistently of their eggs, but were not 

 otherwise seriously molested. Then came the epi- 

 sode referred to above, which is described by 

 Dr, William T. Hornaday in his book Our 

 Vanishing Wild Life: 



" At last, however, a tentacle of the feather 

 trade octopus reached out to Laysan. In an evil 

 moment in the spring of 1909, a predatory indi- 

 vidual of Honolukt and elsewhere, named Max 

 .Schleminer, decided that the wings of those 

 .Vlbatrosses, Gulls, and Terns should be torn oft' 

 and sent to Japan, whence they would tmdoubt- 

 edly be shipped to Paris, the special market for 

 the wings of sea-birds slaughtered in the Pacific. 

 Schlemmer the Slaughterer bought a cheap ves- 

 sel, hired twenty-three phlegmatic and cold- 

 blooded Japanese laborers, and organized a raid 

 on Laysan. With the utmost secrecy he sailed 

 from Honolulu, landed his bird-killers upon the 

 sea-bird wonderland, and turned them loose upon 



