38 
4-15-23 
to find an easier mark. Wetmore suggests this may be a method of supply¬ 
ing the lack of fresh water, certain it is. There is a high mortality 
m % * 
among the shorebirds - particularly the Pacific Golden Plover, with the 
curlew mortality rating second. The plover seem to die with head & neck 
stretched straight ahead of them & flat to the ground just as Wetmore has 
i 
noted other birds dying of alkali poisoning, so it seems almost certain that 
the extreme salinity of the lagoon, which, froths up like Great Salt Lake into 
shore drifts of foam at the least lapping of waves, affect the plover ad- 
versely. 
The whole mating cycle of fregata is a fascinating thing I wish I had 
time to really study. Only a few of the hundreds upon hundreds of birds 
on the island have laid, so the males are at the height of their posturing 
and gular inflation. Apparently the male chooses the site for the nest, 
for in many cases I have se'en a o' posturing & imploring from some dead bush 
stumo or rock where later a nest would be started. Here, on the chosen 
site, he sits with pouch inflated to bursting, scanning the sky for passers 
► 
by. When a bird of his sp. appears the head is thrown back, bill pointed 
straight up and wings thrown forward until the primary tips lying on the 
ground in front of the bird make one certain the wing is dislocated. 
Finally a $ descends beside him. This seems to be a signal for any other 
unmated birds to gather in until 5 
an old o* will be the center of an 
admiring or envious crowd of 5 or 6 ?? & otf. Then the process of stealing 
r> 
CA 
crude mass of sticks from their neighbors sets in. In this apparently 
sexes join, the theft always occurring on the wing by a quick snatch in 
.mil career. Then the egg arrives. 
Both sexes participate and both are 
.gsen on the nest together 
ill they may be surrounded by a crowd of 
ether ‘^ids still, too, the male postures and inflates his pouch at passers 
« 
t • 
