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Fais (Tromelin) is an elevated coral island, surrounded by interrupted cliffs 15-20 meters high, lying some 140 miles east of Yap Island, at latitude 9'46' N, longitude 140'31' E in the western Caroline Islands. It has an area of 2.8 square km, and has a population of about 300 people, Micronesians, speaking a dialect of the Ulithi-Woleai tongue. As with many such raised coral islands, valuable calcium phosphate deposits occur on Fais, the greater portion of which was removed and exported during the period of Japanese rule (1914-1945).

The avifauna of the Marshall and Gilbert Islands and the sur- rounding ocean consists of 79 species, of which 37 are seabirds and 42 are land and fresh-water birds. Of these 79 species, 20 are recorded here for the first time. One species, a procellarid, is recorded here as a new breeding record for the area. In addition, many species are new records for the 50 atolls and islands located within the area. Collected bird specimens from the Marshall-Gilbert area now total 1,133 (44 species), of which 585 (43 species) were collected by the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program. The average number of bird species per island is 13 in the Marshall-Gilbert area. A higher number of species exists in the extreme northern Marshalls than elsewhere in the area; the number decreases southward to the southern Marshalls; an increase occurs in the extreme southern Marshalls and further increases in the Gilberts. This north-south variation may be traced to a number of environmental factors.