/. D. Hague on the Guano Islands in the Pacific Ocean. 239 



aad, on being liberated there, one after the other, 



manded, brought back messages, proving themselves useful in 



the absence of other means of communication. 



There are several varieties of tern, those described above, 

 however, being the only kinds that are found in very considera- 

 ble numbers. The game birds, snipe, plover and curlew, frequent 

 the islands in the fall and winter, but I never found any evi- 

 dence of their breeding there. They do not leave the island in 

 qiest of prey but may be seen at low tide picking up their 

 food on the reef which is then almost dry. 



Some of the social habits of these birds are worthy of remark. 

 The gannets and boobies usually crowd together in a very ex- 

 clusive manner; the frigate birds likewise keep themselves dis- 

 tinct from other kinds; the tern appropriate to themselves a 

 certain portion of the island ; each family collects in its accus- 

 tomed roosting place but all in peace and harmony. The feud 

 between the fishing birds and their oppressors, the frigate birds, 

 IS only active in the air; if the gannet or booby can but reach 

 the land and plant its feet on the ground the pursuer gives up the 

 chase immediately. 



Beside the birds there were but few original inhabitants found 

 iipon the islands. Among those I observe several varieties of 

 spiders, at least two of ants, a peculiar species of fly that at- 

 taches itself to the larger birds, and the common 'house fly, 

 J'hich latter, however, may have been recently introduced. 

 They as well as common red ants are exceedingly abundant. 



Rats were found on all these islands, especially on Howland's, 

 where they had become astonishingly numerous. It would seem 

 that they had been carried there long ago, as there are no traces 

 of recent shipwreck on the island, and had multiplied extensively. 

 'Jn Jarvis' Island they were much less numerous, and were 

 probably brought by a ship that was wrecked there thirty years 

 s'nce. They subsist on eggs, and also, as I observed on Baker s 

 island, by sucking the blood of the smaller birds— the tern and 

 noddies; and in this connection I may observe that these smaller 

 ^nds of birds, described above, are almost entirely wanting on 



nd their absence, I thii 



; attributed 

 land's Island \ 



depredations of the rats. These rats of I 

 almost as numerous as the birds. They are of very smaJ size, 

 being hardly larger than a large mouse, and, I think, must have 

 ^iegenerated from their original state in C'^nsequence of the 

 ^^ange of climate, food and condition of bfe. They had com- 

 Pletely overrun the island, and on its first occupation by men 

 ^«re a great annoyance. For many nighte m s^^'^^^^" ^^^^/J^l 

 coitainiug a few oats caucrht over 100, and I have known over 



