A. Anderson 
1964 
duties of Darwin Lee. 
After dark three of us circled the island, working Blue-faced boobies 
while others blood -samp led birds and rabbits, of which there is a considerable 
population on the island. 
4 November 
Boat run made back to the ship as Dick took the blood samples to be 
centrifuged. The rest of us circled the island counting all booby and great 
frigate nests and banding blue-faced booby nestlings and all red-foots available. 
Red-foots have about 20 nests in two Sida patches; blue-faced are nesting mainly 
at the border between Lepturus and the lagoon all the way around, mainly on H, 
¥, and S sides. 
17 Brown boobies were seen roosting on the beach crest on E side; 1 
immature was found but no nests. 
Sooty gerns are present in fairly large numbers, at the end of their 
breeding cycle, concentrated in the dry Lepturus of the ¥ side, Sida of ¥ andN. 
Gray-backed terns also are at the last stage of nesting; with many flying young; 
the colonies are in rocky areas of the H¥ section. Fairy terns perch on the 
rocky beach area and inland rocky areas; few seem to be nesting and no eggs were 
seen. Blue-gray noddies are the most widespread, roosting in random small 
groups all over the island. Full immature were seen, but none younger. 
Great frigates have built about 200 nests, most with large young, mainly on 
W corner, near camp. Lesser frigates have a large nesting colony of more than 
5000 birds just N E of camp near the edge of the lagoon. 
¥edgetails are quite abundant, mainly on the ¥ stretch. Many are nesting. 
Audubon r s shearwaters are abundant and scattered. Christmas Island Shearwater 
are nesting in moderate numbers in scattered small colonies. Several white- 
throated storm petrels have been seen; no Phoenix Island Petrels though I 
heard one last night which was hiding effectively. 
Rabbits number probably between 200-400 and are seen commonly only at night; 
rest under rocks during the daytime. 
Vegetation is low and dry, mainly Lepturus with scattered Boerhavia , Sida , and I 
ffortulaca ; excellent nesting conditions for ground -nest ers . 
Slept for a few hours in the afternoon and then Paul and I banded lesser 
frigates until dark, when I did Blue-faced boobies and others did sooties. j 
5 November 
Banded lesser frigates in the morning on our way to a total of 2180 done 
in the three days. Returned to camp and skeletonized and alcoholized wedge-tails. 
Afternoon a shorebird count was made, discovering only moderate numbers of four 
common species. They were evenly dispersed between the shore and the lagoon. 
The shoreline was largely rocky and not as suited for shorebird feeding as 
islands such as Howland and McKean. 
I again worked Blue-faced boobies, catching almost all the nesting and 
roosting birds that I had missed the night before on the ¥ side - Several small 
clubs of 10-100 sat on the E side of the lagoon edge and were unprofitably 
