After we set up camp Bob and I went north along the beach, where 
we were able to tag five seals, and observed several more large adults 
sleeping along the beach. Th • other three walked inland to the 1 igoon 
and then around its northern edge. Everywhere we go there are albatross 
nesting. There are a dozen within 10 yards of our tent. And they a re 
scattered through all the vegetation wherever we walk. They are nesting 
by the thousands in the bare open areas around the lagoon. 
After dinner the field party again split into two groups to try our 
luck at banding. About 1730 the Bonin Island petrels began to return to 
the island in great numbers, and by dark they were all over the ground in 
the vegetation. They nest in burrows, and the vegetated areas are so 
honey combed with these burrows that we are continually falling into them, 
sometimes up to our knees. Great numbers of gray-back terns also came in 
at dusk, but we were not able to d etermine where ana if they were landing, 
as the air seemed to be filled with them, continually screeching their hoarse 
cries. These, mixed with the cries of the thousands of Bonins and the bizarre 
assortment of sounds which the albatross make, h ve kept up a constant din 
since we arrived, and we will soon find out that these sounds will continue 
all night as well. 
The party this evening banded 300 Bonin Island petrels and Bob and I 
caught and banded 5 golden plovers. He caught a bristle-thighed curlew and 
I got a Laysan teal, but we did not have bands on hand large enough for them. 
We also picked up several sooty petrels ( 0, Karkhaml) . and some common 
noddies but did not band them. There is one large, bushy casurina tree not 
