{May 2§, 1964. 
— — 
The Birds of Laysan. 
(Concluded.) 
Under the title, "The Albatross at Home," we pub- 
lished in our Christmas Number some delightful observa- 
tions made by Mr. Walter K. Fisher on the birds of the 
Leeward Islands of the Hawaiian group. Sorne further 
notes and photographs made by Mr. Fisher are given here. 
Much less abundant than the white species on Lay- 
san, but in many of its habits closely resembling it, is 
the blackfooted albatross. The puffins, or shear- 
waters, in burrowing in the ground, loosen the soil 
with bill and feet, shoving the loose sand and soil be- 
neath their bodies, and then kicking it in "little jets 
GANNET AND EGGS. 
far behind them. The burrows enter the ground at a 
slant and then become horizontal. They are usually 
three feet long and often more. These birds are noc- 
turnal in habits and are especially active on moonlight 
nights. The Christmas Island shearwater digs a very 
shallow burrow or none at all, sometimes depositing 
its eggs on the sand under a bush. 
The white-breasted petrel is a nocturnal bird nestling 
in long burrows, which honeycomb the sandy soil in 
all directions over the region which they occupy. They 
are about the size of the domestic pigeon, and occur 
in great multitudes. 
Gannets of three species are found here, the blue- 
faced, red-footed and the common booby. 
The man-o'-war bird proved scarcely less entertam- 
ing to the observers than the albatrosses. The birds 
are extraordinary in appearance, and their antics, espe- 
cially in the case of the male, are as singular as their 
appearance. "During the courting period, the gular 
pouch of the male is enlarged, and before the broodmg 
cares have begun he inflates it to a large size, and at 
the same time it becomes a bright red color. The 
bird looks as if there were fastened to his throat a 
balloon, such as children dangle on a string. 
At Laysan these birds built their nests on the tops 
©f low bushes, in colonies, sometimes of few and some- 
GANNET AND YOUNG. 
times of many members, laying one pure white, gloss- 
less egg. The parents take turns in covering the egg, 
which must always be protected, since, if a nest is left 
without an occupant, other birds take its material to 
repair their nests. After the egg has hatched this 
watchfulness must still be continued, for fear that the 
young birds should be eaten by some other frigate 
bird. On Necker Island a few nests of frigate birds 
were found on the rocks. 
The powers of flight of this species have often been 
described, and Mr. Fisher thinks that there is justifi- 
cation for all the eloquence that can be devoted to such 
description. He says: "To maintain any continuous 
sailing, the albatrosses need a fresh breeze, and they 
always move with considerable rapidity. Not so with 
the frigate bird, however; on comparatively calm days 
they are able to rest on motionless wing, or slowly to 
describe circles high in air. Some wind or motion of 
air is, of course, always necessary, but they seem to be 
able to do with a minimum amount. They frequently 
rise so high that one can scarcely detect them against 
the shimmering blue of the tropical sky. Suddenly 
some individual aloft takes a notion to descend, and 
promptly does so by a series of long leaps or swoops 
that make one fairly dizzy. It is a pleasant occupa- 
tion to watch them soaring about the mastheads when 
the peculiarly short 'arm' and 'forearm' and the dis- 
proportionately long quills are seen to advantage; and 
their deeply forked tails, likewise, which help to keep 
them balanced and which open and shut occasionally 
like a pair of shears. Their feet are small and their 
legs weak, so that, although still totipalmate, they 
never alight on the water, but pick up floating bits of 
food as they swoop down on the broad parabolic 
curve. They can judge distance so accurately that no 
disturbance is created when the object is seized. 
"On Laysan this good judgment was made use of 
when the birds drank from a small pond. They flew 
back and forth about twenty feet above the water, then 
suddenly darted downward a long curve, and, when 
directly over the surface, like a flash bent the head 
down, dropped the lower mandible and scooped up a 
little water." 
Curiously enough this little island of Laysan, which 
is scarcely three miles long, harbors a peculiar species 
of duck. Of these birds there are not more perhaps 
than a hundred specimens on the island. They 
lived about the little fresh water ponds already spoken 
of, were tame, spent most of their time walking about 
- — for they seldom flew and never flew far- — one of 
them used to come up to the house after nightfall and 
walk about like a barnyard duck. 
Another curious bird is the Laysan rail, which is ex- 
tremely abundant, and which Iras lost the power of 
flight. "The Laysan rail is a wide-awake, inquisitive 
little creature, with an insatiable thirst for firsthand 
knowledge. It is one of the most knowing, unsophisti- 
cated and wholly unsuspicious birds in the whole avian 
catalogue. At times it is confiding and familiar in de- 
portment, yet at others holds aloof with some show of 
reserve. It will occasionally hide behind a bunch of 
grass as if afraid, and then suddenly come forth with 
entire change of demeanor, and examine the intruder 
with a critical eye. One can never tell how he will be 
received by the next rail. Often they scurry away as 
if pursued by a bete noir, but an insect will stop them 
in their mad career, and having partaken of the inter- 
ruption, they seem to forget their former fright and 
MAN-o'-WAR BIRD SHOWING DISTENDED POUCH. 
walk about stretching their necks- in a highly inquisitive 
manner. It is evident that they are incapable of pur- 
suing the same thought for more than an instant. 
Their ideas seem to flash by in kaleidoscopic succes- 
sion, and within a minute they make as many false 
starts as a healthy monkey. One can scarcely imagine 
more amusing and foolish little birds than these." 
There were four migrants, a tattler, a curlew, a 
plover and a turnstone, seen on the island. And be- 
sides this, three other land birds, a honeyeater, a 
finch and a warbler. 
Wild Animals in Semi- Domestication. 
Pittsburg, Pa. — Editor Forest and Stream: River- 
view Park, Allegheny City, Pa., is a magnificent stretch 
of w^ild woodland, with deep, rocky,. well timbered ravines 
in their primitive state of nature, magnificent hills over- 
looking the Ohio River Valley — the "Belle Riviere" of the 
early French explorers — for miles, on the highest of 
which the imposing new Allegheny city astronomical ob- 
servatory is nearly completed. 
At the head of Killbuck Hollow, in a large inclosure 
having preserved nearly all the natural surroundings of 
the virgin forest, are a cow elk and. her half-grown fawn. 
They have preserved their natural habit of resting in the 
shade during the heat of the day, feeding toward even- 
ing. The cow elk with the bull have been in the park for 
several years, and pay little attention to the many people 
who pass them continually. The cow especially has lost 
completely the habit the species has in the wild state of 
lifting the head every few moments while feeding, turn- 
ing the ears in every direction and sniffing the breeze for 
scent of danger. The fawn, on the other hand, has all the 
characteristics of the wild deer family; always on the 
vi^atch, lifting its head and turning the ears in every direc- 
tion every few moments while feeding, and at the least 
noise turning the ears forward in the direction of the 
sound, assuming a magnificent attitude of alertness and 
readiness for action. It makes also that peculiar motion 
of pointing the nose upward and turning the head rapidly, 
which I have observed among wild elk. 
I have spent many delightful hours in the cool of the 
evening watching the beautiful creatures from the lee 
side from a secluded position. Wonder if the little fel- 
low will gradualljr lose its instinctive watchfulness when 
it finds out there is no danger? If it does, it will not be 
half as pretty and interesting as now. 
Julian thb Fox Huntkr. 
Snake Venom on Snakes. 
ToPEKA, Kansas. — Editor Forest and Stream: Is there 
a belief among zoologists that poisonous snakes are 
immune to their own venom? If there is such a belief, 
it is an erroneous one; and while I do not want to set 
up my opinion as an authority, I will state that I have 
never yet found a rattlesnake, cotton-:^outh or water- 
moocasin, that did not commit suicide, if caught and 
teased for awhile, and then given an opportunity to 
sink its fangs into its own body. 
From January to July, 1897, four of us were living 
in a cabin in the mountain region of Southwestern 
Arkansas, while prospecting for minerals, and as one 
of the four stoutly maintained that all poisonous rep- 
tiles were immune to their own poison, to settle the 
question, we began our experiments by making a snake 
trap of a slim, dry pine pole, about twelve feet long, 
GANNET FEEDING YOUNG. 
with the top end notched and a strong cord passing 
over the notched end up through staples on the pole 
to the hands at the butt end of the pole. By drawing 
the string down to the small end we could have as 
long a loop as desired, and this we would drop ovei 
a snake's head and then by a quick pull upon the string 
we would have our victim fast at the end of the pole. 
With this trap we captured many copperheads, cot- 
ton-mouths, dark timber and diamond-back rattlesnakes 
- — as they are called, on account of coloration by the 
native Arkansan — and the water-moccasins, and by tests 
we found that the water-moccasins could and would 
strike more times, and discharge more venom at a 
time, than any one of the others of the same size would. 
We also found that after we had held any one of these 
snakes by the neck by the string for half an hour or 
so, if we dropped the snake end of the pole on the 
ground and loosened the string, so as to allow the 
snake to draw about one-half its body through the 
loop, and then draw the string tight enough to hold 
the body of the snake tight against the end of the 
pole, it would, after squirming a few times, always 
strike its fangs into its own body, one or more 
PAIR OF GANNETS. 
times, and within five minutes by the watch, never 
longer, the snake would stretch out limp and dead. 
We also learned that if we could catch a rattlesnake 
out in the woods and whip him with a long switch, 
keeping out of his reach, that after four to six strikes 
and jumps, he would sink his fangs into his own body 
and die within five minutes. 
A singular result we also noted, that within two 
days the ants would reduce this self-poisoned snake to 
a finely polished skeleton; but we never could find any 
dead ants on the surface of the ground. Whether the 
effects of confinement would destroy the deadliness of 
their venom, I know not. I only write of the results 
of the tests we made. W. H. R. 
[The observations of our correspondent are quite 
opposed to those of scientific observers generally, and 
we are bound to conclude that the snakes which he 
bcJitved to have committed "suicide," died from, some 
cause other than their venom. _ This question has been 
frequently investigated by scientific men, and in Dr. 
Stejneger's important paper on the "Poisonous Snakes 
of North America," published in the Annual Report 
of the U. S. National Museum for 1893, pp. 345 to 484, 
the matter is referred to in the following wor<u: 
