29 
k~12-23 
Christinas id. Shearwaters are daily becoming more common. They are 
still only a drop in the bucket as compared with cueatus, which I believe 
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to be-easily the most common bird on the island. Speaking of P. cuneatus 
Vet more even vent so far as to say he thought it out numbered all the birds 
of ail other sps. put together. I am not ready to say that for the Sooty- 
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backed Terns would in themselves- make a vast host to offset, but his gener¬ 
alization certainly has a basis for its advancement. 
Laysan Albatrosses are common but scattered. Terns swarm but only in 
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local colonies, while Wedge-tails are common to abundant and are everywhere I 
Among them now, as I say there is a sprinkling of nativltatls sufficient 
so that they no longer attract more than the most casual attention as they . 
scramble out from under our very feet in an odd indescribable beetle-like 
scurry. The feet of these sea birds are ail wholly inadequate to support 
them decently and the resultant gaits are laughable. The Tropics can not 
balance themselves at all, but buck & plow along on their breasts. How¬ 
ever, they rise from the ground easily due, no doubt, to the fact that the 
wings have such a short beat-arc & descend so slightly below the shoulders 
at the bottom of the stroke. . The Shearwaters, as I say, have a low horizontal 
unbirdlike scramble like nothing so much as an overgrown beetle. The gooneys 
have a variety of bowery swaggers. The Man-o f -war Birds rise with difficulty 
and do not attempt to walk, and so it goes. 
Finished up what film I want in slow motion of this particular tern 
colony this afternoon & lugged in the K.S., leaving only the Parvo & 5*7 
to get some shots of the only .juv. Love Tern in the colony tomorrow when 
rhe early sun is on the . Five miles or more under heavy back packs 
in this heavy sand broken with shearwater pitfalls is a mean days work 
and I am dreading the 2 hours of film & plate changing before I can roll 
