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Mon. 
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± jan. 65 Finally worked out some more mimeo forms - 
bne for the Blue-faced Booby colony check, one for the 
shorebird and seal census, and another for a daily check 
on bird populations - particularly for those birds not 
on island in abundance. Dennis spent the whole day on 
the Laysan - the skin looks real good. I spent an hour wi 
th the Boobies - there was much agonistic behavior, and 
R9 and 10 are trying to supplant 02 from his platform - 
this caused a long skirmish between the birds - in one 
instnace the d" seized 02 by the neck and tugged, buc. 
02 broke away and continued Head-wagging, eventually get- 
ting the platform back. Rll quietly copulated with his 
mate, I did not see the beginning, but did see the end, 
it looked as though it may have been a good attempt, 
it would be good to get some eggs to watch before X 
leave. There was Sky-calling at 2200 as we were banding 
Bonins - could it be that some activity goes on through 
the night? 
We banded 54 Bonins tonight - one burrow that I examin- 
ed went clear out of reach, and the chamber felt as tough 
it was widening out. We caught a Bristle-thighed Curlew, 
by hand, and banded it. X see now how it gets its name— 
the f eater shafts of the thigh have no barbs, are 
gossamer-like and shine like a speder wejj catching the 
early rays of the sun. These birds are remarkable to 
handle, lying still on the table as I pour over him for 
parasites — none found. I could lay him on his back and 
let go - he sould still just lie there. He was released 
at 23OO and flew off into the dark, with no calling. 
5 Jan. Started a new study today to determine who is 
in the colony and at what time. Each hour on the hour 
the colony is checked and the axtivity location of the 
birds in the colony is noted. Each numbered bird is 
accounted for throughout the day if in the colony. It 
is rare fro these birds to perch anywhere on the island 
aside from the colony area, so it is safe to assume that 
if they are not present they are at sea. We have seen 
groups of 3 or four birds on Sand Island, but when we 
did two of the birds were not colony birds at all. 
It seems as though the males tend to precede the 
females in arriving back to the area at night. Single 
birds were as. follows for a 4 hour period: 
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