98 Director's Annual Report. 



members of the party did nothing but catch and kill the birds for 

 the especially trained taxidermists to skin. The bird-catchers did 

 their work for the most part early in the morning or during the 

 evening hours. This enabled them to select fine adult specimens 

 that were at sea fishing during the day. Their equipment con- 

 sisted simpl}- of a banibu pole, or occasionally a net on a long 

 pole, and a large light basket. One man in two hours will kill a 

 basket full of birds. In one of tliese baskets I counted seventy- 

 five perfect specimens. The skinning is accomplished at an aston- 

 ishingly rapid rate. One man, they assured me, held the world's 

 record for making bird skins, having made in one day of ten hours, 

 under test conditions, one hundred and thirty complete .skins. In 

 such undertakings quantity, not quality, is the thing chiefly con- 

 sidered. As a result, few indeed were the skins that would have 

 been received in a museum collecftion. The average day's work 

 fell far below this record pace ; probably the usual number would 

 not exceed fifty skins. Still, during the six months from March 

 to September not less than fifty thousand birds are there slaugh- 

 tered as a sacrifice to the cruel goddess of fashion. 



The birds were in all stages of development, from the downy 

 nestling, just showing a few piu feathers, to the young of the jear 

 which were able to go to sea and secure their own food. The 

 chicks, when very A^oung, are streaked with brownish gray and dull 

 white on the back, while below they are a uniform whitish color. 

 This down soon begins to give wa}- to the pin feathers which 

 follow the down capsules as a continuation of the same shafts. 

 The feathers appear over the back and wings first, followed b}- 

 the feathers on the lower parts. In the meantime the wing quills 

 and rectrices have partially developed ; the head is the last to 

 feather. Often the down remains about the base of the beak until 

 the bird is able to fl}^ .short distances. 



The parent birds here, as elsewhere, make no attempt at build- 

 ing a nest. Since they prefer to sit on the sand)' shore, and on hot 

 days to retreat a little farther inland under the shade of the trees, 

 they deposit their single 0^^% any place they happen to be at nest- 

 ing time. Though they rarely go farther than three or four hun- 

 dred yards inland, their young and eggs are to be found occupy- 

 ing almost every square 5^ard of this Sooty Tern belt, which runs 

 on the upper beach prac?lically the entire distance around the island. 



