Natural Science News. 



VOL. II. No. 5. ALBION, N. Y., FEBRUARY 29, 1896. Weekly, $1.00 a Year 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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Objects of Interest on a Guano 

 Island. 



A recent writer from Baker's Is- 

 land, in the South Pacific, off the 

 coast of Peru, about 2,500 miles, 

 gives an interesting account of life 

 on that little patch of terra firma, 

 which carries upon its bosom near- 

 ly a million tuns of guano. 



He mentions that fish of remark- 

 able beauty, weighing from fifty to 

 sixty pounds, are abundant, and 

 are easily taken with a hook. 

 Sharks abound also — murderous 

 sharks who swarm about the ship 

 with greedy and persistent devo- 

 tion. These sharks are, by hered- 

 itary proclivity, man-eaters; and 

 the white man who comes within 

 their reach is snapped at in an in- 

 stant by a score of ravenous 

 mouths. But, strange to say, a 

 dark-skinned Polynesiam will swim 

 about their midst and rarely be 

 molested. I have seen a native of 

 the Hawaiian Island heartlessly 

 jump from the bow of a ship into 

 the midst of a '-school" of these 

 fellows, swim, with the end of a 

 line in his mouth, to one of the 

 buoys, and return to the vessel un- 

 injured. 



Whether there is a sort of free- 

 masonry between the sharks and 

 the Kanakas, or whether the tastes 

 of the shark are too fastidious, and 

 not sufficiently cannibal to relish 

 cannibal flesh, has not been satis- 

 factorily explained. But the shark 

 and the Kanaka are on the friend- 

 liest terms imaginable. 



The flying fish abounds in these 

 waters. When pursued by the 

 dolphin, their foe, whole schools 



of them may frequently be seen to 

 leap out of the water and fly for 

 several hundred yards, skimming 

 along quite near the surface and 

 now and then gaining new velocity 

 by striking the crest of a wave 

 with their long, ray-like, pectoral 

 fins. But this beautiful fish has 

 enemies in the air as well as in the 

 sea, and frequently its aerial flight 

 is cut short by some fleet sea bird 

 that is ever on the alert to seize its 

 prey. 



THE FEATHERED INHABITANTS. 



Among the chief objects of inter- 

 est on the Island to a visitor are 

 the birds; and they are well worthy 

 of stud}'. The sea-fowl are at all 

 times a noisy set, but at night, 

 while the older ones are engaged 

 in the quarrels of love-making, 

 and the young are complaining 

 over their scanty rations, the Babel 

 of their chattering is destructive 

 to the sleep of one unused to such 

 disturbances. 



During the first night of my stay 

 on this forlorn spot, it seemed at 

 times as if the house were beseig- 

 ed by innumerable tom-cats; then 

 the tumult resembled the suppress- 

 ed bleating of goats, and I heard 

 noises as of bats grinding their 

 teeth in rage; again it was the 

 querulous cooing of doves, and 

 soon the chorus was strengthened 

 by unearthly screams, as of ghouls 

 and demons in mortal agon)'. But 

 on going forth into the darkness to 

 learn the cause of this infernal ser- 

 enade, all was apparently calm 

 and serene, and the radiant con- 

 stellation of the Southern Cross, 

 with the neighboring clouds of Ma- 

 gellan, looked me peacefully in the 

 face, while, from another quarter 

 of the heavens, the Pleiads shed 

 their -'sweet influences" over the 

 scene. 



The most quiet time of night 

 with the birds is about day-bjeak, 

 when they seem to subside into 

 "cat-naps, " preparatory to the la- 

 bors of the day. 



By day many of the birds range 

 on tireless wing, over leagues of 

 ocean, in quest of fish. But still 

 the number of them that remain 

 about the island is sn great as to 

 defy computation, and as you pass 

 through their haunts, in some 

 places they rise in such clouds act- 

 ually to darken the air above you. 



The eggs of some of the birds 

 are of fine quality, and are much 

 esteemed by the Americans as well 



as the Hawaiians on the island. 

 Those of a bird called the nu-e-ko 

 are most valued. This name is an 

 imitative word, derived from the 

 cry of this restless creature, and is 

 applied to it by the Hawaiians, 

 who have qnick intuitions in ono- 

 matopoetic matters. 



The nu-e-ko is a bird of moder- 

 ate size bearing a striking resem- 

 blance to the piping plover, It is 

 less phlegmatic and stupid than 

 most of the other birds, and does 

 not waste so much of its time in 

 droning -end crooning and love- 

 making. 



Yet it is not undomestic in its 

 habits. While the father is en- 

 gaged in the business of the island, 

 providing for the wants of the fam- 

 ily by fishing, the mother is ever 

 hovering near her half-fledged 

 young, now inviting them to try 

 their wings in flight, and now 

 hustling them out of sight under 

 some clump of brown grass, and 

 teaching them to lie close in order 

 to escape observation. 



The nu-e-ko does not make its 

 home on the guano fields, but pre- 

 fers the sandy shingle nearer to 

 the ocean. The plumage of its 

 back is brown, spotted with gray, 

 a color, so nearly resembling that 

 of the sand upon which it makes 

 its nest, that it might almost es- 

 cape detection. But, when dan- 

 ger approaches it rises on the 

 wing, uttering its shrill, peculiar 

 cry of "nu-e-ko/ nu-e-ko/" and leaves 

 its egg or its young to the tender 

 mercy of the intruder. As it 

 spurns the ground it shows its 

 throat, breast and wings, lined 

 with showy feathers, that glint in 

 the sun like flakes of silver, while 

 it whirls and curvets in the air. 

 This bird is plain in its tastes, and 

 for a nest is content with a simple 

 hollow, scooped out of the sand, 

 the warmth of which assists in the 

 incubation of its speckled eggs. 



The Gannet (Sula bassana) is a 

 bird of great power and beauty. 

 The color of the 'grown bird is 

 white with wings that are tipped 

 with black It has a long sharp 

 beak which is serrated and slightly 

 curved at the end, a formidable 

 weapon of attack as of defense. 

 Its wings are of immense strength, 

 and when fully spread, they span 

 about seven feet from tip to tip. 

 In their fishing expeditions they 

 range for hundreds of miles from 

 their nesting places, and late in the 

 day ships in mid-ocean often see 



