192 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



boobies, frigate birds, tropic birds, tern, noddies, petrels, and some game 

 birds, us the curle\v, snipe and plover. Of terns there are several varieties. 

 The most numerously represented is what I believe to be the Sterna 

 Hirundy. These frequent the islands twice in the year for the purpose of 

 breeding. They rest on the ground, making no nests, but selecting tufts 

 of grass, where such may be found, under which to lay their eggs. I have 

 seen acres of ground thus thickly covered bj' these birds, whose numbers 

 might be told by millions. Between the breeding seasons they diminish 

 considerably in numbers, though they never entirely desert the islands. 

 They are expert fishers, and venture far out to sea in quest of prey. The 

 noddies {Sterna stolida) are also very numerous. Thej^ are black birds, 

 somewhat larger than the pigeon, with much longer wings. They are very 

 simple and stupid. They burrow holes in the ground, in which they live 

 and raise their young, generally inhabiting that part of the deposit which 

 is shallowest and dryest. Their numbers seem to be about the same 

 throughout the year. The gannet and booby, two closely allied species 

 {genua Sula), are represented by two or three varieties. They are large 

 birds, and great dcvourers of fish, which they take very expertly, not only 

 catching those that leap out of the water, but diving beneath the surface 

 for them. They are very awkward and unwieldly on land, and may be 

 e|isily overtaken and captured, if, indeed, they attempt to escape at all on 

 the approach of man. They rest on the trees whenever there is an oppor- 

 tunity, but on these islands they collect in great groups on the ground, 

 where they lay their eggs and raise their young. One variety, not very 

 numerous, has the habit of building up a pile of twigs and sticks twenty 

 or thirty inches in height, particularly on Howland's Island, where more 

 rhaterial of that sort is at hand on which to make their nests. When 

 frightened, these birds disgorge the contents of their stomachs, the capacity 

 of which is sometimes very astonishing. They are gross feeders, and I 

 have often seen one disgorge three or four flying fish fifteen or eighteen 

 inches in length. 



The frigate bird {Tachypetes Aquilus) I have already alluded to. It is a 

 large, rapacious bird — the tyrant of the feathered community. It lives 

 almost entirely by piracy, forcing other birds to contribute to its support. 

 These frigate birds hover over the islands constantly, lying in wait for 

 fishing birds returning from sea, to whom they give chase, and the pursued 

 bird only escapes by disgorging its prey, which the pursuer very adroitly 

 catches in the air. They also prey upon flying fish, and others that leap 

 from sea to sea, but never dive for fish, and rarely ever approach the water. 



The above are the kinds of birds most numerously represented, and to 

 which we owe the existing deposits. When the islands were first occupied 

 they were very numerous, but have since been perceptibly decreasing. 



Cuban Tobacco Grown in New Jersey. 

 Prof. Mapes presented a very handsome specimen of tobacco leaves 

 grown b}'^ Mr. Quinn, at Newark, N. J., from Cuban seed, which produced 

 at the rate of 1,100 pounds per acre. This tobacco is worth in this market 

 about twenty cents per pound. The color of the leaf regulates the price. 

 This growth is much larger than the same seed would have produced in 



