88 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. VIII, January, 1954 
persons are now working at this station, sup- 
plied every 3 months with foods and materials 
from the Tokyo Central Weather Station. 
Now being totally disfigured, Marcus Is- 
land, which lies peacefully and beautifully 
with green cover and white beach surrounded 
by deep-colored semitropical ocean, im- 
pressed us as a disappointment as soon as 
we landed on it. Everywhere on the island are 
to be found residues of war. All along the 
coast are trenches, with tochkas here and 
there on which rusted anti-aircraft guns are 
still pointing to the sky. On the northern 
coast, from the eastern end to the western, 
a broad runway was constructed for occa- 
sional visits of airplanes, and almost all the 
southwesterly one third of the island is left 
as it was devastated by the typhoon, the ruins 
of United States camps and trucks scattered 
everywhere. Thus, the brushy jungle which 
formerly occupied four fifths of the island 
{fide Yoshida) is now restricted to a small 
central section through which roads pass and 
which in many places is dug up for air-raid 
shelters, while ruined, rusty gas tanks are 
conspicuous among the green cover. 
Under such circumstances, with continuous 
human intervention, many sea birds which 
formerly bred abundantly on this island have 
disappeared completely. The burrow-nesting 
shearwaters {Fuffnus pacifcus) lost their breed- 
ing place in the soily regions, and the ground 
and tree nesters such as Puffinus nativitatis. 
Frigate Bird, Tropic Bird, and Boobies as 
well as the beautiful Fairy Tern have aban- 
doned the island. The island, formerly crowded 
by these birds, is now nothing but a ruined 
coral elevation. In fact, Bryan reports (Aug- 
ust) 18 species of sea birds, including migrant 
waders, of which 9 species were breeding, 
and he secured 56 specimens without using 
a shotgun (the use of a shotgun is said to 
have been prohibited by the Japanese cruise 
ofiicer). 
On my recent trip (early May) I found but 
eight species, of which only two, Sterna fuscata 
and Anous stolidus, were breeding. The length 
of both Bryan’s trip and mine was a week, 
and, although my visit was seasonally earlier, 
I was told by the workmen of the station that 
none of the other species come to breed in 
the summer. 
The Sooty Tern {Sterna fuscata), which I 
estimated at about 1,000, should have been 
at least several times as many formerly. They 
are unfortunate survivors, because, to my re- 
gret, their breeding is still being disturbed. 
Their whole flock was gathering at the west- 
ern beach when I landed on April 30, but it 
was a surprise that only three eggs were found 
left and few females were about to lay eggs. 
At this beach many eggs were said to have 
been taken until just a few days prior to our 
visit. Two days after, I noticed that the whole 
flock had given up this beach, scattering to 
the outer coral rocks of the northern side 
where wading is necessary to reach the eggs. 
They seemed to have soon laid eggs at these 
new, safer places, and this habit has appar- 
ently retained their present number. How- 
ever, if this condition continues, their future 
decrease to the point of extinction on Marcus 
is quite certain, and, therefore, I hope that 
my friends on this remote island will pay 
attention to the future of their birds. 
The noddy {Anous stolidus), on the other 
hand, is a species that has found new egg- 
laying places on war remnants which are safer 
than their former favorite sites on the trees, 
as reported by Bryan, where the eggs were 
likely to be disturbed by people. A few of 
them still breed on the coral rocks with the 
Sooty Terns, but they now breed principally 
in small colonies on abandoned gas tanks, 
tochkas, and the like, and even high up on 
the wireless towers. All these colonies are, 
therefore, inaccessible, or at least hard to 
reach, and, though their number is only about 
200 in all, this species may increase in the 
future until these few safe places become 
crowded. However, compared with the for- 
mer population their decrease is evident. 
Only a few other species of birds were found 
on the island. Two Gygis alba were seen and 
