THE BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS. 863 
quished to the United States. ‘‘Disappointed in not being able to find guano 
by their crude methods, the Japanese developed a scheme to make a marketable 
commodity of the Goonies, by killing them and boiling them down in a great 
kettle to form a fertilizer, which they shipped to Japan, saving, however, the 
long wing quills to sell as eagle-feathers for the decoration of women’s hats; 
and the breast feathers were plucked off and sold by the pound. Under this 
treatment the colony has greatly dwindled, and in 1902 the birds were only 
killed for their feathers.’”* 
Photo by W. K. Fisher. 
ALBATROSSES ON LAYSAN. 
In May, t902, Mr. Walker K. Fisher with the U. 5. Fish Commission 
steamer Albatross, found the Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses breeding 
upon the island of Laysan in immense numbers, variously estimated at from 
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 middle of 
a. The Auk, Vol. XXII., Jan., 1905, p. 99; Review of Bryan’s ‘“‘A Monograph of Marcus Island.” 
b. W. K. Fisher, Habits of the Laysan Albatross, Auk, Jan., 1904, p. 1 ff. 
