Schreiber 
Christmas xisland 
\ 
noy two flocks of birds on theground with eggs. 
70 e is in the smae ppot as last week at the end o 
f the dakota strip and the other is at the toehr 
end of the stip and acrosss the road near the watei 
This flock is bhe largest ardmost dense but the 
eggs are still many feet apart. B tween camp and 
D°site the birds are in she air starting about at 
the carver w T ay and extending all the way to d site 
with some concentration spots but no where wery 
thick. Saw two birds tha are caught and dead in 
Doddler with one wing caught in the stuff. Most 
eggs are under messerschmidia or near the bushes 
EGG: 51.70 x 35.08 
53.48 x 35.12 
51.66 x 35.12 
50.54 x 34.68 
57.80 x 35.96 
49.51 x £ 34.08 x 
52.30 x 33.00 
53.26 x 35.72 
52.14 x 35.00 
49.94 x 37.20 
49.36 x 35.73. 
48.24 x 35.42 
52.74 x 34.30 
51.30 x 31.32 
49.88 x 34.10 
46.47 x 35.70 
48.72 x 36.02 
51.97 x 34.73 
54.05 x 36.72 
51.07 x 34.94 
49.24 x 34.79 
49.33 x 35.44 
52.72 x 36.27 
49.00 x 36.73 
50.96 x 34.77 
52.36 x 35.02 
49.88 x 35.86 
48.97 x 35.64 
&£x££xxx:2£x&ft 
49.11 x 35.83 
51.84 x 36.48 
28 May. Spun down blood and then wnet to the old 
plantation in themid of the lagoon and walked 
several miles along thetide areas duringthe after 
noon and counted birds. see sheets for info. 
Wnet with dudley to pmck up eggs, for sooties 
colony along water hole. 0 u t of some 200,000 
birds est, xaw only tso with bands. Will have to 
get someof them.... In evening to movie. 
( ! 
29 May.* Drove around looking at sooty terns; At the 
far end of the island they are now nesting in full 
swing with est some 350,000 birds at end and along 
the Dakota air strip. Most of these on fresh eggs 
All along the main road there are now birds beginn 
ing at about two miles north of carver way. Just 
opposite the Joes Hill and into the Scaevola about 
a half mile there are many sooties on eggs. 
Schreiber 
Christmas 
29 May con't < 
Almost all of these eggs are laid around the edges 
of the scaevola and even within the bushes and the 
adult have a hard time getting out of the bushes wh 
en ■frightened. Found two birds with a wing caught 
in the doddler which, no one had been in this area 
so this hd happened normally. Found no eggs out 
side of an area of about three feet of the bushes. 
Found out fromDudley that for the last week the mer 
of the billage have been collecting eggs form the 
colony along the water hole. This explaines why 
i have not been able to find any eggs because i ha\ 
been cheeking them just after dark and the natives 
hav been collecting them between about 4 and dark 
and have been taking all the eggs that have been 
laid that day. Dudley estimates that s cm 60 bucket 
of eggs have been taken from the area and says that 
about 200 eggs fill a bucket. 
s* 
/ 
j j - - - —- — —- -— ..—.—■ 
3u May' 
Worked the frigate colony along the lagoon road, 
see data sheets for info. 
Lorakeet: found the pair of birds in the same tree 
as on the last days, seem quite tame and are doing 
alot of"billing and cooing". 
31 May: Today again found the Lorakeets in same tree 
as usual durng tie afternoon. Spent the night in 
the girgate colony along the peninsula in Isles 
Lagoon. See data sheets for info. 
I JUNE 
Spent afternoon looking for loarkeets and warbler 
nests. Found about 30 warblers but no nests 
even though the birds seem to have definite terr 
V itories. One of the naive formen says that about 
two months he saw 6 lorakeets down by the banana 
water hole where i have been seeing them. I s this, 
valid observation.? 
Went with dudley to collect eggs near Joe’s hill 
nad we gathered 8 buckets each holding a’xut-250 
eggs. Using this number of eggs per bucked that 
means that some 15,000 eggs have been collected 
from the colony along the kamixxxroad to london. 
