BIRDS OF LAYSAN AND THE LEEWARD ISLANDS. 
787 
handled, and make off at a great rate if one offers them this indignity. They have a half-doubting 
inquisitiveness which leads them sometimes to walk up to the visitor and examine anything conspicu- 
ous about his person. One bird became greatly interested in the bright aluminum cap to my tripod, 
and strolled up and examined it carefully with both eye and beak, appearing somewhat astonished 
when the cap tinkled. 
Matters always seem to go harmoniously among the members of a colony and no ill-will was 
shown between adults. The young birds, however, occasionally had slight misunderstandings, and 
between the old birds and strange young ones there existed at times of feeding a peculiar animosity. 
When standing beside their young they present a very attractive sight, as their plumage is always 
immaculately clean. The region about the eye is dark-grayish, overhung by a pure white eyebrow, 
which gives them a decidedly pensive appearance. They have an innate objection to idleness, and 
consequently seldom stand around doing nothing, but spend much time in a curious performance, the 
meaning of which I am at a loss to explain. It has been called courting (Avifauna of Laysan, etc., 
p. 57) , but as the antics are carried on during the birds’ residence of about ten months on the island, 
they are probably an amusement, in which the albatrosses indulge immoderately in lieu of other 
diversion. This gamej or whatever one may wish to call it, may have originated in past time during 
the courting period, but it certainly has long since lost any such significance. 
The proceeding in brief is as follows: Two albatrosses approach each other bowing profoundly and 
stepping rather heavily. They circle around each other nodding solemnly all the time. Next they 
fence a little, crossing bills and whetting them together, pecking meanwhile, and dropping stiff little 
bows. Suddenly one lifts its closed wing and nibbles at the feathers underneath, or, rarely, if in a 
hurry, merely turns its head and tucks its bill under its wing. The other bird during this short per- 
formance assumes a statuesque pose and either looks mechanically from side to side or snaps its bill 
loudly a few times. Then the first bird bows once and, pointing its head and beak straight upward, 
rises on its toes, puffs out its breast, and utters a prolonged nasal groan, the other bird snapping its 
bill loudly and rapidly at the same time. 
Sometimes both birds raise their heads in air and either one or both utter the indescribable and 
ridiculous bovine groan. When they have finished, they begin bowing at each other again, almost 
always rapidly and alternately, and presently repeat the performance, the birds reversing their role 
in the game, or not. There is no hard and fast order to these antics, which the seamen of the Albatross 
rather aptly called a “ cake walk,” but many variations occur. The majority of cases, however, follow 
the sequence I have indicated. Sometimes three engage in the play, one dividing its attention between 
two. They are always most polite, never losing their temper or offering any violence. The whole 
affair partakes of the nature of a snappy drill, and is more or less mechanical. (Figs. 25-28.) 
Occasionally one will lightly pick up a twig or grass straw and present it to the other. This one 
does not accept the gift, however, but thereupon returns the compliment, when straws are promptly 
dropped and all hands begin bowing and walking about as if their very lives depended upon it. If 
one stands where albatrosses are reasonably abundant, he can see as many as twenty couples hard at 
work bowing and groaning on all sides, and paying not the slightest attention to his presence. When 
walking through the-grassy portions of the island, I have seen white heads bobbing up and down 
above the green, as solitary pairs were amusing themselves away from the larger congregations of 
their kind. If I walked up to them, they would stop and gaze in a deprecating way, and walk off, 
bowing still, with one eye in my direction. Having reached what they considered a respectful distance, 
they would fall to and resume their play. 
Should one enter a group of albatrosses which have been recently engaged in this diversion and 
begin to bow very low, the birds will sometimes walk around in a puzzled sort of way, bowing in 
return, a curious fact, which F. H. von Kittlitz recorded as early as 1834: 
“When Herr Isenbeck met one, he used to bow to it, and the albatrosses were polite enough to 
answer, bowing and cackling. This could easily be regarded as a fairytale; but considering that these 
birds, which did not even fly away when approached, had no reason to change their customs, it seems 
quite natural. 
One moonlight night we strolled over the island after nocturnal petrels and visited a portion of a 
populous albatross colony. The old birds were still hard at work executing that queer “song dance,” 
and in the uncertain light the effect was one long to be remembered. Their white plumage made 
them conspicuous for a long distance over the stretches near the lagoon. From all sid s the sound of 
a Extract from Avifauna of Laysan, p. iii (F. H, von Kittlitz in Museum Senckenbergianum, I, pp. 117 et seq.). 
