■R. Cl arm 
1964 ' • 
• • 
I 
Oct, 10 - Tao ngi Atoll ^ Marshall Island s 
i 
Arose at 7 * 3 ^ and when I reached the flying 
, » , 
bridge Taongi was in sight, a possible? Lesser 
Frigate was seen and Blue-gray Noddies and white- 
phase Wedgetails were seen. One immature 
frigate dove repeatedly at the fishline trailing 
the ship for about a minute. No Black-naped 
Terns were seen along the reef. From a distance 
the islands of this atoll did not look nromising 
for birds as the number of birds over the islands 
seemed much scanter than on the "good 11 Phoenix^^ 
Island bird islands, 
Sibylla Island 
W - J>-— IM. , mm m i —■> i ■ — » ' — — 
Off the atoll to. the. west in the. morning 
both Phoenix phase and white-phase Red-footed 
Boobies were seen flying beyond the edge of the 
reef. 
At 1445 a feeding flock was seen as we 
approached the reef to again try the passage into 
the lagoon. The refoots seen were mostly 
white-nhase but Amerson saw one' Brown-phase bird, 
On the evening on Sibylla we banded redfoots 
and kept track of ratios of different phases. 
Of 179 adult birds banded, 171 were white ^hase, 
2 were brown phase and 6 were Phoenix phase. 
Several instances were noted of Phoenix phase 
birds mated to’ white phase birds, (737-30017, 
80041, 80053) 
One fully adult (from general, plumage pattern 
tail color, a.nd soft-part coloration) white phase 
redfoot (with a golden head wash) possessed an 
intermediate tan eve color, . Face part colors 
were quite bright, gul ar pouch black, and feet 
were medium red in color. 
Apparently there are several types of immatures 
or subadults as the case mav be. One bird, 
737-80075 * was generally of the appearance of a 
white phase bird except that the .back, vings, and 
tail had mottled brown on them. Termed in further 
discussion as "immature white phase" (better Suba.) 
