318 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



at her nest iu an exhausted condition, without a morsel of food left for the 

 expectant young at home. 



During the calm -warm days of summer the sea is frequently so smooth 

 that the booby is unable to bring home its usual eateli of flying-fish. At such 

 times tlie man-o'-war birds not only resort to cannibalism, but infanticide as 

 well, ill order to satify their demand for food. If by chance the parent bird 

 of a nearby nest sliould happen to leave its young unguarded, the ever-watchful 

 pii-ate-bird, with a swoop of wings and a vicious snap of beak, will seize the 

 almost naked, helpless nestling and mount high in the air, dangling the young 

 bird from its beak. When in the bird's judgment the fall will be sufficient 

 to crush the life out of its prey, the man-o'-war bird, with nnirderoas intent, 

 will drop its neighbors' offspring to the ground. The falling nestling is 

 closely followed in its descent by the bird, that it may be first in at its death. 

 If the fall was sufficient to kill the young bird, it is snatched from the ground 

 and gobbled down by the greedy pirate-murderer. If the young bird strug- 

 gles, it is again carried into the air, this time to a greater height than before, 

 and again allowed to fall to the ground. This performance is often repeated 

 several times before the helpless young bird is pronounced dead, when its 

 body is s^vallowed by its assassin in a single gulp. 



White Terns. 



There is not space in one brief chapter to describe the interesting nesting 

 habits of the beautiful white terns or love birds,-- the colonies of thousands 

 upon thousands of gray-backed,-^ noddy and Hawaiian terns ; the shear- 

 waters, petrels and boobies, all of which occur on other islands of the group, 

 but it seems unfair to nature, to Laysan, and to the reader, to fail to mention, 

 even though it must be in the briefest manner, the species that are found 

 nowhere else in the world. 



The Laysan Duck. 



The sportsman finds it almost impossible to believe that a distinct species 

 of duck, the Laysan teal,-^ could make so small an island its only home, but 

 such is the case. On a recent visit, however, I found this little colony so 

 reduced in numbers that the species could easily be exterminated in a single 

 day with dog and gun. This little teal, a close relative of the Hawaiian duck, 

 is perfectly fearless. On one occasion a pair, out of curiosity, swam up to 

 tlie bank of the little lagoon where I was partially concealed, and, coming out 

 on the bank, walked up so close to the camera that it was necessary to draw back 

 to bring them into focus on the plate. 



The Flightless Rail. 



The great natural curiosity of the island is the little flightless rail.^^ The 

 common belief that thev are wingless is an error — growing out of the fact that 



" Gygis alba MttUtzi. ^^ Sterna hinnta. -* Anas lai/sant-nsis. -^ Prozanida ijalmeri. 



