304 



AYIFAUXA OF LAYS AX, ETC. 



For several years the observation lias been made that (Estrelata hijpoleuca, which has under- 

 mined nearly the whole island, arrives on Laysan between the 15th and 18th of August. I 

 remember most vividly the evening of the 17th of August, 1896. It was less noisy on the 

 island than before, for the clamorous Terns had reared their young, and thousands of 

 Albatrosses had left their ancestral home for the boundless ocean, which would in future be 

 their dwelling-place. We were just leaving the little hill from where we had been looking 

 for the sail which should take us back again to civilized countries. The golden glow of the 

 sunset was fading away, and the slender sickle of the new moon began to shine ; then our 

 eyes, which had become well acquainted with every one of the characteristic motions of our 

 feathered companions of the island from week-long observations, were struck by a new 

 phenomenon. Against the dissolving evening glow was sharply traced the silhouette of a 

 magnificent flier, which cut through the air with the keenest and at the same time most 

 elegant movements, inaudible and almost without movement of its wings. The manner in 

 which it dashed along was unknown to us, and we saw that a neAV arrival had reached our 

 island. The next evening there were more, and on the third thousands filled the air. The 

 new guests were pretty birds, barely of the size of a domestic Pigeon ; but they began to 

 domineer all over the island in such a way that the few pairs of Tropic-birds, Terns, and 

 others which were still breeding made way before them, as if they could not stand these noisy 

 neighbours. They are, on land, entirely nocturnal, and at once took possession of their 

 innumerable subterranean burrows. In the bright moonshine one could see how they were 

 busily engaged in removing the loose sand from the holes, most of which had more or less 

 collapsed since they had left them. Loving couples selected their nests and fought hard for 

 them against later intruders. Quarrels, rights, and clamour became unceasing; in a few 

 days there was no spot with sandy soil where the horrid £ song' of these Petrels could not 

 be heard ! Under every bush, between our luggage and cases, and, alas ! also under our 

 bedroom, their tune was raised, which stood about in the middle between that which * drives, 

 men to madness ' and the cries of new-born babies, which are only harmonious to their 

 devoted parents. The face of the island was entirely changed ! 



" A few months later the aspect is again altered by an invasion of a still more imposing 

 kind. During the last days of October the first vanguard of the mighty Albatrosses appeared 

 and a few days afterwards the island looked, from an elevated point, as if it was densely 

 covered with large snowflakes. There Avas hardly a spot of ground on which the dazzling 

 white plumage of an Albatross was not apparent ; and the number of these birds is often so 

 large, that many are obliged to deposit their eggs on rather unsuitable spots, and many 

 others fail altogether to find a nesting-place, and must leave the overcrowded area. 



" Of the other sea-bird invasions I will only mention that of the Terns, which is so 

 enormous that during the first days, when the birds have not yet selected a spot for breeding, 

 the island appears from a distance as if a heavy cloud of smoke were hanging over it." 



It is to be regretted that Professor Schauinsland has not yet given us the more detailed 

 accounts about the birds of Laysan which he announced he was going to publish (see 

 ' Drei Monate auf einer Koralleninsel,' p. 100, note 17). 



