Notes from Banko ? s Files - Necker - Birds 
Judd, 1923 : (on Tanager Expedition) - popular account - Photographs of 
female frigate and young at nest, young and old Blue-faded Booby, 
Laysan Albatross — Many of frigatebirds with inflated throat 
pouches and sitting on nests -- Fairy Tern photograph from Necker. — 
saw partial albatross dance and young Laysan Albatross --Fairy Tern 
pair on Necker were "hatching out an egg" . 
Bryan, 1938 1 description of island, records five species of plants Chenopodium 
sandwicheum, Panic urn torridum, Portulaca lutea, Sesuvium portula c astrum, 
Sesbania tomentosa and says that there is no sigh of a half a 
dozen other species imported by Judd in June 1923 (Tanager), 
States "The five days we spent on the island in June 1923 " implying 
he was on trip. Says cockroaches and a native species of Rhyncogonus 
weevil occur there. 
Fisher, 1906 1 Arrived near Necker on the afternoon of May 30 (Albatross expedition) 
States' that Fairy Tern, Blue-gray Noddy, Gray-backed Tern, 
Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Bulwer s s Petrel, Red-tailed Tropicbird nest 
there as do Sooty Terns, Brown Noddies, Blue-faced Boobies, and 
Laysan Albatrosses, Brown Boobies, and Great Frigatebirds, Comments 
by species below: 
: treated as saxatilis , "Always lays its egg in 
hollows among the rocks. Discovered egg, downy chick and an immature 
bird in juvenal plumage. Nest description, photograph, all eggs much 
incubated, two specimens saved, detailed description, measurements 
redescription of bird and its plumages, discussion of differences. 
Fairy Tern : more common than on Laysan, one of the commonest terns. 
Nests all along the steep face of the island. 
n : chose the softest spots for nesting where an accumulation 
of siol had collected on the shelves. On Necker it is the most 
abundant' + ern.^ unlike Sooties on Laysan all the eggs were advanced 
in incubatinn and many young birds hatched and peeping. Some perhaps 
a week to tensdays old. A few eggs laid in cavities in the rocks 4 
A nest with two eggs found by Gilbert. 
Gray-backed Tern : many observed, nesting in shallow cavities and 
hollows of the rocks on the more exposed portions of the island 
and only sparingly on the broad shelves with Sooty Terns, 
Common Noddy :,Fairly common on Necker, nests and eggs found, nest 
smaller than on Laysan and composed solely of Portulaca stems., 
Roosts formed near the waters edge just out of reach of the surf. 
Black 
: Observed a number on Necker but found no nests. 
Laysan Albatross : rather abundant on Necker, over the top of 
the island where there is more or less vegetation. Gilbert estimated 
roughly that there might be from one to two thousand birds. 
Also scatterred over the shelves on the side of the north point where 
one adult seen feeding young. 
