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- 30 - 
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which & bus8 oarap was ostablishod hsz*9 thQir ccmploto destruction was 
effected and for the last nine days of our residenoe no one saw a living 
rabbit# A party sent a»t a ln ilay f 1924 reported no sign of them so that 
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our effort was successful. 
It is fortunate that the work had not been longer delayed. As 
the greater part of the rabbits (several hundred) wore Killed during the 
gl, irw* 
first five or six days the plant growth near the lagoon, relieved from 
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depredation, responded amazingly and in two weeks time presented a 
luxuriant mat of green, light rains fell and immediately little shoots 
of scattered green appeared from seed that still remained in the shifting 
sands, and scrao of the apparently lifeless shrubs put out a few leaves. 
To aid in this rejuvenation we planted quantities of seeds of plants and 
shrubs suited to growth in sand and even in the short length of time before 
our departure a slight change for the better was evident. 
With the rabbits eliminated let us now examine the offoot of their 
depredations on the bird-life of this island. A few dozen Laysan finohes 
still sang their sprightly songs about the t utabl o d ew a- buildings or hopped 
about among the rooks near the lagoon. Three individuals alone of the 
little red-bird remained on our arrival, but these perished during a three- 
day gale that enveloped everything in a cloud of swirling sand, but not 
until Dickey had Immortalized one on his motion pioture film. The )iiiller- 
bird had disappeared entirely and of the Laysan rail but two remained. 
The duck (properly called the Laysan teal) never numerous in recent years 
as it was killed for food, had about held its own as twenty individuals wore 
present, a soant foothold on existence for its speoies and it n»y be wiped 
out at any time. 
