52 
ANAS LAYSANENSIS 
old birds with broods, one of which took to the pond. I also saw a young one swim- 
ming about, the mother being hidden somewhere in the tangle of grasses.” 
Eggs which I saw at Tring were pure white to greenish white, smooth and without 
gloss. 
St.\tus. Rothschild’s (1900) collector. Palmer, found the Laysan Teal generally 
in pairs but sometimes in groups of a dozen or more. Like all observers since his day 
he found them exceedingly tame and says he never saw them on the water, though 
often near the beach. They frequented the scrub all over the island, but were “not 
very plentiful.” Three years later W. K. Fisher (1903) estimated their number at 
less than a hundred, and suggested that the Man-o’-War Bird {Fregata aquila) was 
keeping them in check. In 1909 a party of Japanese plumage-hunters landed on 
Laysan and in the process of collecting albatrosses almost exterminated the Teal, 
which they presumably used for food. Two years later when Dill and Bryan (1912) 
visited the island to report on the bird reservation set aside by President Roosevelt 
in 1909, and which included this island, they could not be sure that there were 
more than six individuals left. I was recently told by Dr. T. S. Palmer that they 
were certainly reduced at one time to ten, but that according to the latest report he 
had, there were in 1918 some thirty-five individuals. Another factor in the destruc- 
tion of the w’ild life on the island was the introduction of the domestic rabbit, about 
1903, by the former manager of the guano company, who planned to start a rabbit- 
canning industry. By 1911 rabbits had increased enormously but had not yet exter- 
minated the vegetation. A. M. Bailey (1919) describes a recent attempt to exter- 
minate the rabbits, which he says have overrun the island, and are destroying all 
vegetation, so that the sand is drifting. Such conditions cannot but endanger the 
existence of the Teal. During Bailey’s visit alone, 5000 rabbits were killed It is 
to be hoped that some means will be found to put an end to this pest. 
In a letter written by Dr. A. Wetmore, from Honolulu, in July, 1923, he tells me 
of his visit to Laysan in April and May, 1923. He found twenty Teal and col- 
lected six, leaving a breeding stock of fourteen. He adds that those remaining 
showed traces of albinism, and w'ere so lacking in power of flight that they were 
exhausted after going one hundred and twenty-five yards. He easily ran them 
down and captured some by hand. 
