MID-PACIFIC BIRD RESERVATION. 163 



RAVAGES OF PLUME HUNTERS. 



Eight years ago Mr. Bryan found much of Laysan literally cov- 

 ered with these splendid birds, but when visiting the island last year 

 he discovered that more than half of the colony had been wiped 

 out of existence by plume hunters. Prof. Dill estimates that only 

 about one-sixth of the original colony of the species ' known as the 

 Laysan albatross (Diomedea immutabilis) is left. The plume hunt- 

 ers landed on the island in May, 1909, and straightway began the 

 work of slaughter. By the fall of the same year they had killed 

 upward of 300,000 birds. While apparently albatrosses were the 

 chief objects of pursuit, the feather hunters did not neglect other 

 birds, and the list of slain includes, besides the Laysan and black- 

 footed albatrosses, the sooty tern, gray-backed tern, noddy tern, Ha- 

 waiian tern, white tern, Bonin Island petrel, wedge-tailed shear- 

 water, Christmas Island shearwater, red-tailed tropic bird, blue- 

 faced booby, red-footed booby, man-o'-war bird, bristle-thighed cur- 

 lew, and, without doubt, the island duck and such of the smaller 

 birds as the hunters were able to secure. Bryan in his report to the 

 department says, substantially: 



The slaughter wrought by the foreign plume hunters is everywhere ap- 

 parent. One of the work buildings formerly used by the guano company and 

 later as a storehouse by the poachers is still standing. Though with a side 

 torn out and left open to the weather by the men of the Thetis, it is still filled 

 with thousands of pairs of albatross wings. Though weather-beaten and use- 

 less, they show how they were cut from the birds, whose half-bleached skeletons 

 lay in thousands of heaps scattered all over the island. 



Plume hunters the world over are not noted for the virtues of for- 

 bearance and humanity, but these men seem to have adopted excep- 

 tionally cruel methods on Laysan. Thus Prof. Dill in his report 

 states : 



An old cistern back of one of the buildings tells a story of cruelty that sur- 

 passes anything done by these heartless, sanguinary pirates, not excepting 

 the practice of cutting the wings from living birds, leaving them to die of 

 hemorrhage. In this dry cistern the living birds were kept by the hundreds 

 to slowly starve to death. In this way the fatty tissue lying next to the skin 

 was used up, leaving the skin quite free from grease, so that when they were 

 prepared little or no cleaning was necessary. 



Many other revolting sights, such as the remains of young birds that had 

 been left to starve and birds with broken legs and deformed beaks, were to be 

 seen. Killing clubs, nets, and other implements used by these marauders were 

 lying all about. Hundreds of boxes to be used in shipping the bird skins were 

 packed in an old building. It was very evident that they intended to carry on 

 their slaughter as long as the birds lasted. 



In January, 1910, the nefarious work was stopped by the arrival 

 of the United States revenue cutter Thetis, and 23 poachers were ar- 

 rested and conveyed to Honolulu, together with the plumage which 

 they had baled preparatory to shipping to Japan. The wings and 



