100. 23 Jan., 1965 So much has happened today that it seems like 3 days have gone by. It was the day for Blue-faced Booby hourly check, so I began that at 9:00. Never were there fewer than 23 birds in the colony at any time. I caught and painted the ♀ with an egg - 06 now - 667-35047, and also got the ♂ (697-24517) - 05. The male, after sitting some time with his mate during the day, left and joined another ♀, even en- gaging in territorial combat against R27-28 with this new bird. B8 laid an egg today around noon, so we have two Blue-faced eggs in the colony at the present time. R19 spent some more time with 63, but rejoined R20 after all 3 birds flew about. The Laysan abandonments in SAF numbered 36 today - this is after Jim Priest had taken 13 of the eggs last weekend. 3 more bands from dead birds were removed by Dave. I saw only two sick birds, but learned a good deal more about them. 1). 4 xx incubating birds were noticed in the NAF, surrounded by a circle of feathers on the ground. Ex- amination showed that these feathers were not fallen out of the bird, but were cut!!! The quills have been cleanly severed, as the one taped in below shows. 2) The backs of two of the birds were examined, and there were ABSOLUTELY NO SORES on them - the stubs of the cut off quills remained firmly in theback of the bird. 3) Rats appear to be the only agent, aside from man and scissors, that could cut the feathers as cleanly as they were cut. 4) The feathers were removed in an area directly anterior to the uropygial gland - an area often stricken by the 'disease'. 5) All the birds mentioned were withing 100' of one another - does this suggest that nomadic bands or packs of rats operated within a given area? 6) In broad daylight, a bird was seen with rats crawling all about him. I remained inthe area, and the rats crawled over the tail of the live bird and commenced feeding, even though the Laysan grabbed and threw 2 of them off its back. The rats were feeding on live flesh in the area in which the feathers had been removed from the incubating birds. This stricken bird was near the N. end of the runway, well over a dozen rats about him. Pictures were secured of the rats on the back of the