A Monograph of Marcus Island. 



97 



Sterna fuliginosa Gmel. Sooty Tern. 



This tern is by far the most abundant bird on the island. They 

 literally swarm over the reef, while on the sandy shore from almost 

 the waters' edge to a considerable distance inland, especially 

 under the trees, the ground was so covered with the old and young 

 in all stages that one had to use great care to avoid stepping on 

 them. During the da}- the noise made by this concourse w^as nerve- 

 racking ; but at night when the parents were all home from the 

 sea and were in anxious search for their young, the cries of 



Vu\. -. On the south beach looking east. The birds are principally the 

 young of the .Sooty Tern, Sterna fulit;inosa Gniel. 



Wide-awake , 7cide-azvake, together with the scolding, angry K-r-a-a 

 was almost distracfting. It would be useless to attempt to estimate 

 the number of individuals on the island ; probably to say that there 

 were hundreds of thousands would convex^ a conservative sugges- 

 tion as to their abundance. 



In certain centres of fashion there exists a great demand for 

 the skins and wings of this particular tern ; they are made use of 

 in producing .some of the wonderful creations of the milliner's art. 

 As a result of this demand the enterprising, though destru(5tive, 

 colony of Japanese, previously referred to, had been established on 

 the island to kill birds and prepare their .skins for export to New 

 York, Paris and Berlin, by way of the home ofhce in Japan. While 

 we were there some thirty men were engaged in the work. Certain 



Occasional Papers B. P. B. M., Vol. II., No. i.— 7. 



