THE BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS. 



863 



quished to the United States. "Disappointed in not being a1jle to find guano 

 bv their crude methods, the Japanese developed a scheme t<i make a marketable 

 commodity of the Goonies, by killing them and boiling them ilown in a great 

 kettle to form a fertilizer, which they shipped to Japan, saving, ho\ve\-er, the 

 long wing quills to sell as eagle-feathers for the decoration of women's hats; 

 and the breast feathers were plucked otT and sold by the pound. Under this 

 treatment the colony has greatly dwindled, and in 1902 the birds were only 

 killed for their feathers."^ 



Pl-olo by IV. K. Fisher. 



.^LB.'VTROSSES ON L.WS.AN. 



In ^lay, 1902, Mr. Walker K. Fisher with the U. S. Fi.sh Commission 

 steamer Albatross, found the Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses breeding 

 upon the island of Laysan in immense numbers, variously estimated at froin 

 one to two million adults. His account of their nesting habits, together with 

 their grotesque dances, or cake walks, reads like a passage from the Arabian 

 Nights.'' According to this authority the Albatrosses consume about ten 

 months of the year in nesting. The single egg is laid near the mifldle of 



a. Tlie .Auk, \'o\. XXII.. Jan., 1905. p. 99; Review of liryan's ".\ Monograph of Marcus Island.' 



b. W^ K. Fisher, Habits of tlie Laysan .Mbatross, .-\uk, Jan., 1904, p. i ff. 



