AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN. xiii 



on account of the coral-rocks, but the water was so calm that I consider he had no excuse 

 for not landing me in the small boat. 



j u ly ll —It has taken us i ill to-day to reach Midway Island, although it is only 60nules 

 from Pearl and Hermes. Soon after we anchored in the bay, I came ashore. What I am 

 now on is what is known as Sand Island. This island is almost bare and has hardly any 

 birds : the two or three I saw were of the same species as I had seen all through the voyage. 

 Although tin's island is comparatively large, it is the most desolate place I ever was on. 

 There is hardly any vegetation except a few tufts of grass on tlx 4 south end, and in rough 

 weather most of the island is under water. This is the place where Captain Walker was 

 wrecked in the ' Wandering Minstrel,' and was fourteen months on the island before a passing 

 ship relieved him. There is a house, originally built by an American Surveying Expedition, 

 but it lias been much altered and rebuilt by various shipwrecked crews. Wreckage is strewn 

 about all over the island; in one place there is almost the whole of a schooner lying on the 

 beach, which Captain Walker tells me was the ' General Seigel ' : an account of this wreck I 

 find is hung up in a bottle in the house, together with directions for obtaining food and water, 

 for the use of any future shipwrecked crew. 



About 100 yards from the house is a graveyard, with crosses marked with the names of 

 the sailors buried there. Altogether I cannot imagine a more melancholy picture than this 

 island presents. As there are no specimens of any kind to be got here, I shall go on board 

 to-nieht and arrange to go to the other island, which, together with this one, forms the so- 

 called Midway Island, though really the proper name for these two shoals is Brooks Island 

 and Lower Brooks Island. We sighted a schooner to-day, but cannot yet make out any- 

 thing further. 



July 12. — I came back on board, and the schooner we sighted has put in alongside of us. 

 She is the ' Charles G. Wilson,' of San Francisco, just come from the Caroline Islands. 



July 13. — Have just landed on Brooks Island, which is 4 miles from the ship. The 

 scrub is thicker here than on any of the islands yet visited, and about five feet high, also the 

 grass is much coarser than on Laysan. The island is about 1\ mile long by J of a mile wide. 

 I have wandered all over it, but have seen no species of bird different from what I have 

 collected on the other islands. However, the Red-tailed Tropic-bird is more plentiful on this 

 island, but Albatrosses are very scarce; also the little White Tern \_Gygis. — W. 11.] was very 

 abundant here. My assistant found a rookery of the Brown Gannet and was fortunate 

 enough to get two eggs. There are three or four houses here chiefly built of grass, but in a 

 very dilapidated condition. Captain Walker's son liberated on this island a pair of Laysan 

 Island Bail and a Finch. 



July II — To-day was spent in collecting a few specimens. Both my assistant and I saw 

 an adult White-breasted Albatross feeding a young of the black species [JJiomedea chinensis. — 

 W. B.]. I am quite sure of this, as we were close to the birds at the time, although from having 

 seen old birds drive away all other young from the one they were feeding, I still believe they 

 know their own young. The White Terns {Gygis) I notice do not sit on their eggs like most 

 birds, but stand up and cover the egg between their legs by drawing the breast-feathers over it, 

 which has made some people believe that it puts its egg in a pouch to incubate it. 



j u ly — To-day I spent in hunting for eggs and young birds. I found one nest, with 



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