104. 29 Jan. The activity count lasted all day - Standen got the wettest watch, but it cleared in the afternoon and was very warm and clear - a real pleasure. Of prominace were the forays, repeated again and again, of a ♂ Frigate from the N. roost into the central plain againx for twigs. It seemed the bird would generally hover over Solanum clones and rip out large twigs of the plant - it looked like living strands were broken off. The birds generally came back in flocks of from 3 to 8 birds, containing both RBB and Blue-faced Boobies, the flocks coming in from the NW and breaking up over N. pt. the BFB going to the NAF and the RFB landing in the north roost. One study bird, the ♂ Laysan on nest 50, was in perfect health yesterday. Today he was unable to stand, and a hole about 6"x 7" was eaten out of his back. I destroyed the bird, and his egg is being kept under a lamp in the lab, although it will probably not hatch. The rats work quickly. After the great movie (Sex and the Single Girl) we all had to go out for exercise, so Dennis and Bob banded RFB and Frigates, I worked on Bonins and counted the Blue-faced Boobies and Brown Boobies and on the island. There were few Bonins about, only 19 banded and 9 returns in 3 hours of walking about. The numbers of boobies were low - 114 Blue-faced and 22 Browns - the latter consists of 10 Imm. While banding Bonins I found an injured fairy Tern, an injured Bonin, and a weak Golden Plover. The Fairy Tern is being cared for in the lab, the Bonin was destroy- ed and kept for a skin, and the Plover was banded. 30 Jan. The shorebird and seal census was carried out today. today. Dennis had the interior, Bob and I took the beaches. An attempt to assay number of Albatross nests hatched revealed some interesting things - hatchin over the island is far from uniform. At N. pt. 33 per cent (1 off 3 nests there) were hatched, 20 ± 4 per cent hatch in all the rest of the beaches and the runway, whereas only 12 per dent hatched in the interior (both antenna fields). DOES THE activity of the Black- feet on the beaches accelerate egg laying there in the Laysans? Anyway, the beaches are ahead of the rest of the island in eggs hatched.