athers. In the old open guano shed were seen the remains of
hundreds and possibly thousands of wings which were placed there but
never cured for shipping, as the marauders were interrupted in their
work.

[Illustration: SHED PILLED WITH WINGS OF SLAUGHTERED BIRDS ON LAYSAN
ISLAND]

"An old cistern back of one of the buildings tells a story of cruelty
that surpasses anything else done by these heartless, sanguinary
pirates, not excepting the practice of cutting wings from living birds
and leaving them to die of hemorrhage. In this dry cistern the living
birds were kept by hundreds to slowly starve to death. In this way the
fatty tissue lying next to the skin was used up, and the skin was left
quite free from grease, so that it required little or no cleaning during
preparation.

"Many other revolting sights, such as the remains of young birds that
had been left to starve, and birds with broken legs and deformed beaks
were to be seen. Killing clubs, nets and other implements used by these
marauders were lying all about. Hundreds of boxes to be used in shipping
the bird skins were packed in an old building. It was very evident they
intended to carry on their slaughter as long as the birds lasted.

"Not only did they kill and skin the larger species but they caught and
caged the finch, honey eater, and miller bird. Cages and material for
making them were found."--(Report of an Expedition to Laysan Island in
1911. By Homer R. Dill, page 12.)

The report of Professor Bryan contains the following pertinent
paragraphs:

"This wholesale killing has had an appalling effect on the colony.... It
is conservative to say that fully one-half the number of birds of both
species of albatross that were so abundant everywhere in 1903 have been
killed. The colonies that remain are in a sadly decimated condition....
Over a large part of the island, in some sections a hundred acres in a
place, that ten years ago were thickly inhabited by albatrosses not a
single bird remains, while heaps of the slain lie as mute testimony of
the awful slaughter of these beautiful, harmless, and without doubt
beneficial inhabitants of the high seas.

"While the main activity of the plume-hunters was directed against the
albatrosses, they were by no means averse to killing anything in the
bird line that came in their way.... Fortunately, serious as were the
depredations of the poachers, their operations were interrupted before
any of the species had bee