THE-CO.B.R

Volurn VI l'lay-June, 1904 Number ..% The Home Life of a Buccaneer BY V..'ALTER K. FISHI,]R ILLUSTRATED WITH A DRAXVING AND A I'HOTOGRAI'H BY THE AUTHOR N account of his thievish disposition and general lack of regard for the prop- lerty of others, the man-o'-war bird (/O'egata aqd/a) is looked upon as some- thing of a scapegrace. But however unsavory his reputation may be or un- conventional his ethics, he partially compensates by peculiar habits and bizarre appearance, which render him one of the most entertaining of all sea-fowl. During a visit to Laysan, a small but remarkable island situated eight'hnn- dred miles northwest-by-west from Honolulu, tile writer had an excellent opportu- nity to learn something of the home life of these birds. Laysan is a nlere sandy atoll, slightly elevated, enclosing in its central dish-like hollow a placid lagoon, not connected with the sea. The xvhite coral sand slopes up from a grassy, weed- strewn plain surrounding the central body of water, to a rim near the sea beach, and the highest point is scarcely thirty feet above the surf. Bushes of various kinds, Chenopodium, Santalum, Scaevola, and coarse tussocky grass cov&r most of the island, while handsome morning-glories, succulent purslane, and several other pink, yellow, and white flowers add a bit of color to the treeless, monotonous, stretches. Laysan is a veritable bird paradise. Thousands of albatrosses rear their young here each year, free from fear of injury. Sooty, gray-back, and vhite terns, noios, noddies, blue-faced and red-footed boobies, tropic birds, several kinds of shear- waters, petrels, and man-o'-war birds are in legions, not to omit five indigenous 'land birds', including a rail and a duck. During the year numerous migrants, chiefly linlicoline species, among which the bristle-thighed curlew and Pacific

golden plover are prominent, visit these re,note shores. How the3' find the islet is