121. 27 Feb. (cont). as they attempt to make it to their nest. On one occasion I saw a twig exchange 'hands' 5 times before one bird finally managed to land with it. At 1855 Roost Counts were made both towers, as follows: N. Tower - 154 RFB, 200 Frig. R. Tower 120 RFB, 17 Frig. Total 274 217. This is a seen number, probably twice that number are in the roos, or at least 400-500 RFB and about 400 Frig. We must add a cirrigen- da to last report - there were not 800 RFB in the roosts or about the island. Brown Boobies remain hard to count - there are prbb. still about 75 Brown Boobies on the island, but they are dispersed all about, roost on the reef & the buoy, and rocks, even on Sand Is., that a proper evaluation is difficult. The Blue-faced Booby number remains con- sistent. On two successive days 3 Fairy Terns have been seen flying about the island. Today courtship flights by one pair were conspicuous, synchronized, but erratic, flights of the two over the N. Roost. We also had a tremendous increase in the RTB pop - Alan had [illegible] in the air this afternoon. There were many more on the ground - so at least 200 birds, prob. a good deal more, were on the island today. We banded and bled five of them. They will continue to get easier to find and handle. Alan grabbed and I [illegible] bled 5 SAF Blue-faced Boobies this afternoon after dinner. They gave me difficulty - I could not consistently find the heart. The sternum is box-shaped, with a projection ventrally that points caudad - it makes direct penetration to the heart more difficult that in other species. The blue-faced are hardy, and seem not to feel the needle, flying away afterward without hesitation. While I remain after the flick to get ready for departure, Bob and Alan go after no. 1001 Laysan - only 66 more birds to band and the magic feat has been accomplished in the shortest month of the year. Con- sidering that 3/4 of the Laysan have bands, we have to handle many birds to get 1000 unbanded ones. The painting is showing conclusively that theye is minimal intra-island movement of Laysans. Only one or two per day, out of several hundred seen, move from one area to another. In any location at least 99 per cetn of the birds are of the color for that area.