34 11-09-63 Spent today doing odds and ends. Skinned a frozen Brown Booby, and in the afternoon went gooney catching with Bill and Ken. Got about 35 new birds. The Black-feets were displaying with high intensity in many places, and a sizable number of birds have already made scrapes. I saw several groups of four birds, and one with five all dancing together. A few of the Laysan's are paired as of today, and few have joined in with the Black-feets. One pair beneath the radar tower was screaming together and engaging in mutual preening. 11-10-63 Today we began to get all of our equipment and mater- ials which have become strewn over quite an area in to boxes and neat for the coming Western Area's Coast Guard inspection which is 11-12. In the afternoon we met seal i tagging, and took along Bill's "Rube Goldberg" weighing apparatus: Bill is not a Rube for the contraption failed, but to improvise we used a large rope harness affair that was tied around the chest and front flippers. It worked well for the first two animals, but on the third, it placed too great a strain on the bones of the chest cavity and crushed the lungs. We then spent the next nine hours frantically skinning and autopsying the 240 animal. Bills notes will cover the seal pretty well, and I will confine my comments to the examination of the Gastrointestinal tract for endoparasites. Proceeding from the esophagus to the anus - In the esophagus, probably regurgitated, were numbers of nematodes i and a small number of cestodes. In the stomach lining, sewn into distinct patches, were the bulk of the nematodes. Each patch contained from 3 to more than 50 worms, and about 200 patches were present on stomach wall's inside lining. Damage was superficial, but widespread. I estimate the nematode population of this seal to be 3,500 i 2,000 individuals, and I believe that this parasite niche was saturated. The cestode was a type with a large scolex and powerful suckers (Tetrabothriidae?) and was very motile attatching itself to the villus or sto- mach lining and contracting its length and repeating this movement ove and over. Some venturesome individuals had moved from the interior of the animal to the oral cavity in the six hours from death until this part of the autopsy was performed. Individual worms ranged in length from less than 1 mm. to at least 300 mm. when fully extended. The parasite was confined to the region from the beginning