Steller’s Albatross — AUSTIN 
289 
warning outpost which was removed immedi- 
ately after the surrender. The small garrison left 
behind a legacy of several pairs of house cats, 
which, at last report, were still managing to sur- 
vive but were "very wild.” 
In 1946, at the request of Occupation author- 
ities, the Japanese Government established on 
Torishima a meteorological observatory, manned 
by 14 men. It is a lonely and unpopular post, 
to which supplies and relief personnel are 
brought by vessel only once every 6 months. 
Frequently the supply ship has to heave-to off 
shore and wait for days for the weather to abate 
sufficiently to allow a landing to be made. Tech- 
nicians of this weather station report they have 
observed no albatrosses on the island since their 
arrival in 1946. However, they state that the 
slopes now teem with Fork-tailed Petrels 
( Oceanodroma markhami owstoni ), millions of 
which breed in holes under the lava. As is nor- 
mal with petrels, these birds come to the island 
only after dark The weather station personnel, 
noting the birds’ tendency to fly to a bright light 
at night, tell how delicious meals of roast bird 
can be obtained simply by building a big bon- 
fire after dark and letting the petrels fly into it 
of their own accord. 
I have tried to visit Torishima to look for 
Steller’s Albatross and to judge conditions there 
for myself ever since my arrival in Japan 3 
years ago. However, available transportation 
never coincided with freedom from other duties 
during the breeding season until the spring of 
1949, when I was able to accompany a whaling 
catcher on a short trip to the Bonin Island 
whaling grounds. On our voyage out we passed 
Torishima after dark. On our return on April 
9, however, we reached the south side of the 
island in mid-morning. But the weather was 
so rough that the high seas breaking all around 
the island’s 7 V 2 -mile perimeter made landing 
out of the question. Our schedule did not allow 
us to wait for the wind to abate, so I had to be 
content with making what observations were 
possible as we sailed around the island just 
outside the line of breakers several hundred 
yards off shore. These observations were suf- 
ficient, however, to verify the verbal reports of 
the weather station personnel that no albatrosses 
are present on the island. 
The only part of Torishima not affected by 
the recent volcanic activity is the steep north- 
west slopes where the low buildings occupied 
by the weather station staff are huddled. Else- 
where, except on the forbidding vertical cliffs, 
the entire surface of the island is now covered 
with stark, lifeless, black-gray lava. Where the 
flow thins out on the northwest slopes, a few 
dead, white sticks are mute remnants of the 
brush growth that formerly covered the island. 
Also on these slopes some sparse grassy vegeta- 
tion is visible, but there is no sign of those thick 
reeds, or "makusa,” which formerly sheltered 
the albatross colonies. The main crater is still 
smoking and fumes issue from cracks and fis- 
sures all over the summit of the island. 
We saw no albatrosses whatever on or near 
the island, and very few other birds. On the 
sheer southern cliffs a few spots of white guano 
betrayed the scattered roosts of lonesome cor- 
morants. A few solitary gulls scavenged over 
the surf along the shore. Otherwise, for all we 
could see, the island was birdless. It will prob- 
ably be many years before Black-footed and 
Laysan Albatrosses are able to establish them- 
selves there again, and its once fabulous colony 
of Steller’s Albatrosses may be considered to 
have vanished forever. 
BONIN ISLANDS 
Next to Torishima, the best-known colonies 
of Steller’s Albatross were those in the Bonin 
Islands. Here, it will be remembered, most if not 
all the eggs in western collections were taken. 
Apparently these colonies were never as large 
as the Torishima rookery, or if they were, they 
had dwindled markedly from the attentions of 
the feather hunters before any accounts of them 
were written. The first mention in Japanese 
literature of Steller’s Albatross in the Bonins is 
S. Yoshiwara’s statement (1901: 310) that 
"Albatrosses are reported as comparatively rare 
