The Black-footed Albatross 



hundreds and possibly thousands of wings which were placed there but 

 never cured for shipping, as the marauders were interrupted in their work. 



"An old cistern back of one of the buildings tells a story of cruelty 

 that surpasses anything else done by these heartless, sanguinary pirates, 

 not excepting the practice of cutting the wings from living birds and leav- 

 ing them to die of hemorrhage. In this dry cistern the living birds were 

 kept by hundreds to slowly starve to death. In this way the fatty tissue 

 lying next to the skin was used up, and the skin was left quite free from 

 grease, so that it required little or no cleaning during preparation. 



"Many other revolting sights, such as the remains of young birds that 

 had been left to starve and birds with broken legs and deformed beaks, 

 were to be seen. Killing clubs, nets, and other implements used by these 

 marauders were lying all about. Hundreds of boxes to be used in ship- 

 ping the bird-skins were packed in an old building. It was very evident 

 they intended to carry on their slaughter as long as the birds lasted." 



Professor William Alanson Bryan adds: "This wholesale killing 

 has had an appalling effect on the colony. No one can estimate the 

 thousands, perhaps hundred of thousands, of birds that have been wilfully 

 sacrificed on Laysan to the whim of fashion and the lust for gain. It is 

 conservative to say that fully one-half the number of birds of both species 

 of Albatross that were so abundant everywhere in 1903 have been killed. 

 The colonies that remain are in a sadly decimated condition. Often a 

 colony of a dozen or more birds will not have a single young. Over a 

 large part of the island, in some sections a hundred acres in a place, that 

 ten years ago were thickly inhabited by Albatrosses, not a single bird 

 remains, while heaps of the slain lie as mute testimony of the awful 

 slaughter of these beautiful, harmless, and, without doubt, beneficial 

 inhabitants of the high seas." 



In 1913 our Mr. George Willett was commissioned by the U. S. 

 Bureau of Biological Survey to visit Laysan, to report upon the Alba- 

 trosses, which he found to be slowly recovering in strength ; and to destroy 

 the contraband plumage, of which he burned eight tons. 



Our Nipponese friends must pardon us if we continue to deplore 

 such episodes as these, until such time as we have substantial proof that 

 a repetition will be forever impossible. 



"Ah! well aday! What evil looks 

 Had I from old and young! 

 Instead of the cross, the Albatross 

 About my neck was hung." 



1988 



