41 
Some time in the 1890's John Cameron, a sailor and adventurer, visited 
4- jCi H 
;he island and reported "myriads of mice" (Cameron, 1921)- A quote iron ruu 
book (ibid, j perhaps best describes the situation ne iound. 
il ¥e had settled ourselves for an appetizing supper of fresh food when 
myriaas of mice attacked our meal ravenously and utterly without tear 
1 / ive 
them away we could not; we slaughtered them by hundreds, yet they would not 
be denied. A full hour elapsed before we could eat in some semblance of 
peace; then each of us had to hold his food in one hand and a stick in the 
other. During the night the pests continually galloped over us; they die 
6 ' 
not, however, bite us, though that seems remarkable, since there was little 
on the island for them to eat, unless they devoured one another, 
tl 
There is' the possibility that Cameron was in error about which island 
the mice were on, for no one else has ever reported rodents of any kind on 
Lisianski. His book is almost entirely without dates, and was completed 
from his journal after he had died. He describes a lagoon with marge rocks 
at Lisianski (pages and 397) which does not exist today, but 
"h-j < 
description of the island itself, and its position 125 miles wesb ca Lays 
v^vi-.A 
(page 
597) is valid. Thousands of Polynesian rats occur today on Kure Atoll, 
J 
00 miles to the northwest, which does have a lagoon similar to th 
a one 
* *vy*i ( \ s' 
sron described for Lisianski. It is possible that he mixed the rats and 
lagoon of Kure with the island of Lisianski 
-'X 
Birds 
Information on the avifauna of Lisianski is available iron numerous 
sources, beginning with the observations of Isenbeck in March 182S ..Kittlitz, 
^.834 and Rothschild, 1893-1900). Rothschild (op. cit. ) reports bof 
* 4 "' U the 
Li. W , 
species accounts and the field notes of his collector, Henry Palmer, who 
