A. Anderson 1964 5 November, (cont.) WORKED. Birds were in all stages of nesting, involving some 200-300 pairs. Noddies (com) were roosting in large groups (several hundred to a thousand) in the dry lagoon basin and took off en masse upon approaching them. No nesting birds were found. 6 November In the morning we finished off the allotted lesser frigate bands, reaching 2000. At about 11 Paul and I went S while Fred and Dick went N around the rims for fairy terns. We worked them until they were too skittish late in the afternoon, totalling about 200 banded and several dozen returns. I found one egg, while untwisting my ankle, and several immatures. At the end of the afternoon Doug and I finished an odd 180 bands on the lesser frigate nestlings. At night we attacked wedgetails, banding 600. Paul had done 500 the night before; also, each did a hundred Christmas Island shearwaters, which were paired with chicks along the rock ridge of the E shore and the Sesuvium area of the E lagoon shore. The nestlings were mostly downy - few had lost all but a few down feathers. After that everyone did 500 Sooty Terns to round off the banding total for the island at over 16,000. 7 November - Phoenix - Birnie Island Departed the island 0800 with few regrets and spent the morning rearranging and packing for the coming island which was only about 60 miles away. ,Got done just before the boats were to pull away and arrived at 1400. Pitched camp as usual on the leeward side (W) and used the remainder of daylight to survey the island, counting booby nests: Blue-faced were scattered all over the island in all stages of nesting, and about a dozen browns were spread around the N end, also at all stages. A club began to form just N of the lagoon and later contained over five hundred blue-faced. Common noddies roosted about the lagoon. Sooty Terns flew over the island but were never ob- ser ved to land, night or day. Several blue-gray noddies flew about but did not seem to be nesting. Fairy terns were quite abundant, several hundred. Some lesser frigates flew over but never were seen to land. After a few hours sleep to let the moon go down we hit the boobies. I had forgotten the flashlight batteries and there was considerable comment upon this but we managed to collect enough lights so everyone could work. Three of us banded the club and nesters while the other two birdmen took block samples of boobies, noddies, and Polynesian rats, which were very abundant, living under rock, and at the base of the predominant plant Portulaca. 8 November Actually, what we were doing last night goes in this day because it was after midnight. Worked thru till daylight when we slept for a few hours. In