The Black-footed Albatross 



:,«*»S*8? 



Taken on Laysan Island, T. B 



Island (Lat. 24 14' N., Long. 154 E.), for a time under control of the 

 Japanese, but later relinquished to the United States. "Disappointed 

 in not being able to find guano by their crude methods, the Japanese 

 developed a scheme to make a marketable commodity of the Goonies, 

 by killing them and boiling them down in a great kettle to form a fer- 

 tilizer, which they shipped to Japan, saving, however, the long wing- 

 quills to sell as eagle-feathers for the decoration of women's hats; and the 

 breast feathers were plucked off and sold by the pound. Under this 

 treatment the colony has greatly dwindled, and in 1902 the birds were 

 only killed for their feathers." 1 



In May, 1902, Mr. Walter K. Fisher with the U. S. Fish Commission 

 steamer Albatross found the Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses 

 breeding upon the island of Laysan in immense numbers, variously 

 estimated at from one to two million adults. His account of their 



nesting habits, 

 together with 

 their grotesque 

 dances, or cake 

 walks, reads like 

 a passage from 

 the Arabian 

 ^fEj#;-<@bfc Nights. 2 Accord- 

 ing to this au- 

 thority, the 

 Albatrosses con- 

 sume about ten 

 months of the 

 year in nesting. 

 The single egg is 

 laid near the 

 middle of No- 

 vember and is 

 not hatched till 

 February. The 

 young require to 

 be fed for six 

 months before 

 venturing 



abroad, so that it is not until the 1st of September that thejiard-working 

 parents may take a two months' vacation. 



Photo by Waller K. Fisher 



ALBATROSSES ON LAYSAN: THE INTERVIEW 



1 The Auk, Vol. XXII. , Jan.. 1905, p. 99; Review of Bryan's "A Monograph of Marcus Island.' 

 2 W. K. Fisher, Habits of the Laysan Albatross, Auk, Jan., 1904, p. 1 fif. 



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