traveled by way of Laysan for they had left behind a few rabbits now 
increased to a flourishing oolony whoso presenoe was wholly unexpected. 
The circumstance is a clear illustration of the danger of a rabbit colony 
such as had existed on Laysan. as the animals will surely be spread, from 
island to island by the thoughtless until these small spots of land one 
by one are laid waste. On this first visit I shot rabbits until 1 was 
out of shells and two days later inaugurated a rabbit drive and- combed 
the island thoroughly. Subsequently the * Tanager" ~ returned on a second 
trip and the island was oovered again when we were forced to leave the 
matter for the time. On a reconnaissance in May. 1924 three rabbits were 
discovered here, of which two were killed. It is hoped the remaining 
individual may die of enforced loneliness} The island as yet had not 
been injured as vegetation was still abundant, but the increase of another 
year would unquestionably have caused serious damage. 
On another day we penetrated to a second island of snail size and 
then^drifting rapidly before the wind y continued to a third of like tjpe. 
All of these as well as Southeast Island were tenanted by the Hawaiian 
Monk Steal, representative of a gems of troploal haunt whose three species 
are found respectively in the Mediterranean, the western part of the Gulf 
of Mexico, and the Leeward Islands in Hawaii. It is reported that in 1859 
the "Gambia"' returned to Honolulu, with skins and oiljl from 1,500 of these 
aquatic mammals killed in a cruise to the westward, but of reoent years 
they have remained extremely rare. Though reported by many the species 
was unknown to soience until 1905, when it was named frem a single stcull. 
Skins were first brou^it to the U. S. National Museum in 1913, so that our 
