TO/L Fisher, Birds of Laysan Island. foct' 



times to come up and peer at my shoes, with one foot poised in 

 air. Scarcely a thing escapes their beady red eyes. The smallest 

 spider or beetle is snapped up with as much avidity as a more 

 conspicuous seed. 



We caught all our specimens in an ordinary dip-net. Usually it 

 was only necessary to place the net on the ground edgewise when 

 presently a rail would make its appearance and proceed to examine 

 the ' new phenomenon ' at close range. Often they would fairly 

 walk into the net, and Prof. J. O. Snyder obtained a photograph 

 illustrating this amusing incident. 



In strolling through the brush we could hear the Crakes calling 

 here and there. Their song is a plaintive high-keyed little rattle 

 which resembles remotely an alarm clock with a muffled bell, or 

 pebbles ricocheting on a glass roof. I have observed them stand- 

 ing under bushes in the shade rattling away in this manner, with 

 swollen throats and bills slightly opened. I once saw two approach 

 one another, with feathers erect and heads lowered, and begin 

 rattling in each others face. Then they suddenly ceased and 

 slunk away in opposite directions. 



At the house the little Rails walked about the veranda in search 

 of food with far less fear than the chickens, and while Prof. Snyder 

 and I were preparing specimens, not infrequently a Rail or two 

 would be walking under our chairs, searching for morsels of meat. 

 They took no notice of Albatrosses and other sea birds. I saw 

 two in a lively serpentine chase about a young Gony's legs, the 

 big creature appearing like an uncouth mammoth above the trim 

 little Rails. 



They do not seem to exhibit any desire to fly, probably having 

 learned from experience that their wings are no longer to be 

 relied upon. I have only seen them spread their wings when 

 hopping up to a perch, or when running fast. I often chased 

 them to see if they could rise from the ground, but they would 

 not even try. 



Their food consists of small insects, seeds, green material, and 

 sea-birds' eggs. Their beaks are rather weak, and I doubt if 

 they break any eggs except the thinner shelled ones of the terns. 

 I did not myself see the Rail actually puncture an ^^g. but in 

 Rothschild's "Avifauna of Laysan," the following note from 

 Henry Palmer's diary is of interest. 



