BIRDS OF LAYSAN AND THE LEEWARD ISLANDS. 
773 
is formed like a shallow platter. In the center is a lagoon not connected with the 
sea, which occupies about 100 acres and teems with brine shrimps. The island is 
considered to be an old atoll which has been elevated. A fringing reef surrounds it, 
with a passageway on the west side opposite the light-house. 
The island has just been compared to a platter; if one stands on the highest part 
at the north he will see that the land slopes up abruptly from the broad, sandy beach, 
for min g a narrow, grass-covered slope on the north, east and south sides, and a low 
bluff followed by a level stretch on the west. Thus the highest ridge of the island is 
relatively very close to the shore. From this ridge or divide the land slopes off 
gradually to a plain surrounding the lagoon. The narrow littoral slope is clothed 
with short, wiry grass, trailing morning-glories (Ipornoect insularis and I. pes-ca/prx) 
South slope of Bird Island. 
and other plants that love the spray-laden air. The inner slope is covered with tall, 
bush} r grass that grows in separate tussocks, and several species of shrubs, one of 
which {Chenopodium sanckoicheum) covers .considerable areas. This grassy portion 
comprises the greater part of the island, and is succeeded near the lagoon by a narrow 
zone of juncus. Following the j uncus is another belt of a pretty pink-flowered sesu- 
vium, a favorite haunt of the Laysan honey-eater ( Himatione freethi) . 
We now arrive at a flat surrounding the lagoon, covered with thin chips of phos- 
phate rock and destitute of vegetable life. This is what might be considered the 
high-water plain of the lagoon. It is the favorite lurking-place of bands of golden 
plover ( Charadri/us dominicus fulvus ) and wandering flocks of turnstone ( Arenaria 
interpres). Some distance from the southwest corner of the lagoon is a little pond of 
fresh water — or only a trifle brackish — surrounded by a luxuriant growth of juncus, 
and forming a favorite rendezvous for Laysan teal and bristle-thighed curlews; 
