July, I9O 4 [ THE CONDOR 91 the sand, with a few dried grasses scratched around them, as if the old bird in her own mind satisfied her sense of possession by thus staking a claim. Very often even the formality of a few grasses is omitted. The eggs are outward- ly limy white, the under shell of light blue being often revealed by scratches made while the outer layer was soft. It is apparently characteristic of this spedes to lay two eggs, and raise but one young. The right nf the oldest child of the house of Cyanops seems all fixed by law, but in the enforcement of this canon, Nature proves once more that she is not always a kind mother. In other words, it is dis- tinctly rough on the bird which is hatched last. There is evidently a perind of several days between the laying of the first and second egg. The chick first hatched is considerably grown before the second appears, and from the peculiar manner of feeding. is able to devour all available food. It is probably true, also, that the old bird is not at all concerned for its second chick, for we found two newly hatched young, one of which had already been trampled to death, as if purposely. 4. BLUE'FACED BOOBY FEEDING YOUNG We found young and eggs iu abput equal numbers, a,id most of the eggs were far advanced in incubation. The young varied from about a week old down to new- ly hatched individuals. Often all signs of the second egg were removed, as if the nestling had hatched, and had been devoured by a parent. or some marauding Fregata. But more frequently there would be one nestling and one egg. Some- times this egg was spoiled, sometimes cnntamed an embryo. The habit of dispos- ing of one of its offspring is not confined to the birds inhabiting the Hawaiian Group, but bas been noted also on Clipperton and the (;alapagos Islands by Mr. R. H. Beck, who tells me he has observed the oht bird strike one of the nestlings, as if attempting to make away with it. The first afternoon at Laysan we spent on the outer slopes of the islet among the boobies. While stalking some bristle-thighed curlews (Ntnt'nius lahiliettsis) which were ridiculously tame and kept flying a little way ahead, tittering flutelike
