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Sunday 
No Black-feet have been seen with the back-rot; indeed 
the Laysans are the only ones that are afflicted as far 
as we can tell. 
Spent an hour with the Boobies this evening, they are 
all in normal position, although much more alert and 
scared of me than normal, I presume this is becauseof 
our painting effort last night. The paint on the head 
shows up much better now, as we put a thin line down each 
cheek of the bird. Those flying overhead can now be read 
with much facility. 
Dave, Dennis, and I went skin diving in the after- 
noon. Although the water was cold, we managed a half- 
four ot so, and Dave and I made it to the reef. There 
are many wrasvse, butterfly fish, parrot fish, and lots of 
others I have not seen - there is a great difference 
between the fish here and at Johnston. 
10 Jan. , 1965 We bled five birds today - all sick 
Laysans - two so bad that they had to be killed. 
Two 10 cc. samples were taken from one bird, he died as 
a result - he was one of the very sick one> - could barely 
walk, could not fly, sore covered most of back. The 
two we killed, plus one that died sometime between 1400 
yesterday and 21900 today, were taken to S. pt. and dumped 
into the sea. The disease must be contagious if all the 
birds affected are in the same small area. It seems 
unlikely that we could arrest the disease by disposing of 
the dead, as the same condition was seen last year in the 
same area, and is probably firmly entrenched in the soil, 
if it is some virus or bacterial. disease. 
11 Jan. D$d the Blue-faced Booby hourly colony count 
today - it rained almost all day long. The rain seems 
to affect the leaving of the birds, as many more re- 
mained in the colony than last time. The hourly numbers 
a&e as follows, from 0745 » 0990, 1000 . . to 1800. 
95; 48; 14; 16; 18; 22; 21; 23; 41; 74; 89. 
One bird, B 7, a cf, remained in the colony all day - 
if he left he would have had to go out, fish, and re- 
turn within an hour, which seems unlikely in lieu of 
the length of time away from the colony that the other 
birds spend. Again, most birds remain in the same 
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