PERU'S WEALTH-PRODUCING BIRDS 



539 



THIS FLOCK OF CORMORANTS FORMED NFARLY ONF THOUSAND TONS OF HIGHEST- 

 GRADF GUANO IN ONF YFAR (SFF TEXT, PAGF 546) 



This is the most important guano-producing bird of the rainless coast, and the native 

 Peruvians long ago recognized this fact, giving it the name of guanay, meaning, apparently, 

 ''the guano bird." Guanays occur on the Peruvian coast from near the northern to the ex- 

 treme southern boundary, but the principal habitat is the double group of islands off the port 

 of Pisco — the Chinchas and the Ballestas. 



Neither is there a doubt as to the criti- 

 cal nature of the practical problem of 

 maintaining a supply of this element in 

 a form available for agricultural uses. 



Nitrogen exists in the atmosphere 

 above and about us in almost incalculable 

 quantities, but the , problem of supply- 

 arises from the limited means and agen- 

 cies for its fixation in a form in which it 

 can be utilized. There is always a tend- 

 ency, too, for this elusive element to re- 

 turn to Nature's great store, and it 

 can be recovered again only by slow 

 natural processes or expensive industrial 

 methods. So often as the odor of am- 

 monia arises from wastes or decaying 

 substances, so often is nitrogen being 

 lost — for the time — to further useful 

 service. 



Only within recent years have mechan- 

 ical methods been devised to supplement 

 the natural agencies upon which we have 



hitherto depended to make a small por- 

 tion of the nitrogen of the world serve 

 the purposes of man. But such methods 

 are expensive, and doubtless for a long 

 time we will continue to depend princi- 

 pally upon the utilization of organic 

 wastes for nitrogen. 



Consequently a peculiar interest at- 

 taches to birds of the Peruvian islands, 

 which have long served to aid the world's 

 agriculture and which, given due protec- 

 tion, may continue indefinitely to contrib- 

 ute materially to the support of humanity. 



THF ANCIENT PERUVIANS PROTECTED 

 GUANO-PRODUCING BIRDS 



Peruvian guano has been imported 

 largely into Great Britain, Europe, and 

 the United States for many decades. Its 

 employment as a fertilizer on the South 

 American continent is far more ancient. 

 Centuries before the begannins: of mod- 



