Hawaiian monk seals, Monachus schauinslandi, were observed on a 1,000-m section of beach on the west coast of Laysan Island during an 8-day period. At daylight, clouds of flies, mainly Musca domestica, disturbed the seals sleeping in the vegetation, and from 6:00 to 8:00 AM they retreated to the water's edge instead of remaining in the vegetation to bask. The number of seals at the water line remained almost constant from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. From 5:00 to 7:00 PM the seals went out to sea or came up the beach and into the vegetation for the night. The basking habits of the Hawaiian monk seal, observed on Laysan Island July 20-27, 1959, varied from the behavior reported by previous investigators. The seals on a 1,000-m section of beach on the western edge of the island were counted from 2:00-3:00 PM (local astronomic time) each day from July 20 to 27, except on July 22 when counts were made at 2-hour intervals. The number of seals present varied from 43 to 60, with a daily mean of approximately 51 (Table 1). The counts made at 2-hour intervals on July 22 are shown in Table 2. At 6:00 AM only 8 seals were on the beach; at least 20 were sleeping in the vegetation. These soon came down to the water's edge where they were joined by others coming in from the sea. By 10:00 AM no seals were in the vegetation. Although other observers (Bailey 1952, Kenyon and Rice 1959) found seals in the shade of Scaevola during the 1 Paper No. 965, Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, Tucson. 2 Present address: University of British Columbia, Vancouver. 627 flock. Four female starlings, marked prior to the nesting season, laid eggs and successfully reared young. Thirteen female starlings were captured and marked in nests containing eggs. Ten of these marked birds reared young, two birds deserted, and one nest was destroyed. No differences in rates of recapture were noted between marked and unmarked (but banded) robins and starlings. Mobility does not appear to have been altered in marked birds, as tagged birds have been reported at distances greater than 100 miles from the study area. Information on the effect of this method on the life expectancy of marked birds is not available. LITERATURE CITED ANDERSON, A. 1963. Patagial tags for waterfowl. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 27(2):284-288. FRANKEL, A. I., AND T. S. BASKETT. 1963. Color marking disrupts pair bonds of captive mourning doves. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 27(1):124-127. GOFORTH, W. R., AND T. S. BASKETT. 1965. Effects of experimental color marking on pairing of captive mourning doves. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 29(3):543-553. HESTER, A. E. 1963. A plastic wing tag for individual identification of passerine birds. Bird-Banding 34(4):213-217. MACKEY, J. P. 1965. Cooing frequency and permanence of pairing of mourning doves. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 29(4):824-829. THOMAS, J. W., AND R. G. MARBURGEa. 1964. Colored leg markers for wild turkeys. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 28(3):552-555. Received for publication December 6, 1965. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.203 on Sat, 27 Aug 2016 04:24:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 628 Journal of Wildlife Management, Vol. 30, No. 3, July 1966 Table 1. The number of Hawaiian monk seals on 1,000 m of beach on the west coast of Laysan Island 2:00 to 3:00 PM, July 20-27, 1959. NUMBER OF DATE SEALS AT WATER'S EDGE July 20 51 21 5 22 60 23 50 24 52 25 52 26 43 27 46