Two adults moved into the water in front of us about 1140. 
At 1155 we turned inland. There were four seals within 50 yards 
of us when we turned, and we observed two more lying asleep a short 
distance off the beach in the Scaevola bushes. 
The sparsely vegetated area inland and down the ridge of the island 
supports a heavy Laysan nesting population. The area is somewhat sheltered 
by the slight crest to the west and is perhaps 3/4 of a mile from the 
east, shore of the island. The area runs from up in the Scaevola region 
several hundred yards down to the west margin of the lagoon, and then all 
the way around the north edge of it, where the sand gradually gives way 
to low herbaceous cover. Thousands of albatross were nesting along here, 
mostly Laysan as I mentioned above. The area is littered with bleached 
bones, egg shell and fecal material, and young and auult birds are every¬ 
where. Nest construction v.ries from an almost imperceptable depression 
in the sand to a symmetrical debris and mud structure 6 or 8 inches high 
with a depression in its center. Birds in the more definite nests seem 
to add to them by pulling in mud and oebris within reach as they sit on 
the nest and adding it to the mound. Lven the young chicks uo this, and 
it would seem to be an innate response. 
We observed several Laysan teal along the lagoon, and golden plover 
and ruddy turnstones were noted among the nesting albatross. A few curlews 
were present also, ana a small group of sanderlings was seen along the edge 
of the lagoon. 
