1 62 



"Special Correspondence of the 'Chronicle.' 



HONOLULU, June 2t,. — Captain Hamlet, of the Thetis, states that 

 the destruction wrought by the party of Japanese poachers on Lisiansky 

 islan.d to bird life was something appalling. He estimates that they 

 killed at least 300,000 birds, to judge from the number of cases of plumage 

 and the amount of meat they secured. All of their spoil had to be aban- 

 doned, but it is properly preserved and will keep for a long time. There 

 are 335 of these cases, the plumage in them being of the highest Cjuality. 



"The Japanese who were brought here by the Thetis are the remains 

 of a party of bird poachers whose presence on an American island was 

 reported by Captain Niblack, of the United States steamer Iroquois, 

 some weeks ago, and the Thetis was sent to stop their operations, but she 

 arrived to find them only too anxious to leave their hunting-ground and 

 to abandon spoil which is worth at least $20,000. 



"The Japanese were employed by a Tokio firm, and they fitted out in 

 the schooner Yeiju Maru in Yokohama last December. Their destina- 

 tion was Lisiansky Lsland, a wonderful center of ocean-bird life in mid- 

 Pacific not far from ^Midway Lsland. The island is the property of the 

 United States. 



"According to their story, they arrived at Lisiansk}' Island on Janu- 

 ary 8, and commenced at once to kill birds. They had a stafl^ not only 

 of hunters^ but also of skilled taxidermists and skinners, for the birds' 

 plumage was intended for the millinery markets of Paris. The men col- 

 lected skins and wings by the thousand, the birds being very tame." 



The following- is the report for 1904 of ]\Ir. A\\ Alanson 

 Bryan, of the Bernice Panahi Bishop ^Museum of Honohilu, a 

 member of the cornmittee : 



"As 3^et no efiort has been made to organize an Andnbon 

 Society in the Hawaiian Islands, although the matter is under 

 consideration and we hope to be able to effect an organiza- 

 tion within the comuig year. 



"The annexation of Hawaii by the L^nited States has neces- 

 sitated the recasting of many of the fundamental laws of the 

 country, and, in consec|uence of the unusual amount of urgent 

 legislation before the local assembly, the modification of the 

 game laws has been deferred ; although the stibject has been 

 thoroughly discussed and a model bill is at hand wdiich wdll be 

 presented as soon as it is possible to secure its consideration 

 by the legislature. 



"When compared with any other state in the L'nion, it will 

 be observed that an unusually large proportion of the native 

 land-birds of Hawaii are; now considered, as being, extinct. 

 Fortunately their extermination has been brought .about: by 



