"Report of an Expedition to Laysan Islands in 1911"* 



ON February 3, 1909, President Roosevelt signed an executive order 

 creating the largest, and, in many respects, most important Bird 

 Reservation of the fifty odd now existing. It is known as the Hawaiian 

 Islands Reservation and consists "of a dozen or more islands, reefs, and shoals 

 that stretch westward from the Hawaiian Islands proper for a distance of 

 upwards of 1,500 miles toward Japan." 



Laysan, ornithologically the principal island of the group, is known to Amer- 

 ican readers through the admirable work done on it by Walter K. Fisher, who, 

 while on the S. S. 'Albatross,' visited the island in the summer of 1902 and sub- 

 sequently published the results of his studies, together with the exceptionally 

 interesting and successful photographs which he obtained. f 



The present paper adds a chapter to the history of the island, and the facts 

 it presents regarding the destruction of bird-life for millinery purposes so 

 forcibly illustrate the need for bird protection even in the most remote parts of 

 the globe, that by permission, we quote from it at length. 



In his letter of transmittal, Mr. Henry W. Henshaw, Chief of the Biological 

 Survey, writes: 



"The Hawaiian Islands Reservation was established by Executive order 

 in 1909 to serve as a refuge and breeding-place for the million of sea birds and 

 waders that from time immemorial have resorted there yearly to raise their 

 young or to rest while migrating. In 1909 a party of feather-hunters landed on 

 Laysan, one of the twelve islands comprising the reservation, and killed more 

 than 200,000 birds, notably Albatrosses, for millinery purposes. Through the 

 prompt cooperation of the Secretary of the Treasury, the revenue cutter 

 Thetis, under the command of Capt. W. V. E. Jacobs, was dispatched to the 

 island and returned to Honolulu in January, 1910, with 23 poachers and their 

 booty, consisting of the plumage of more than a quarter of a million birds. 

 In the spring of 191 1, a cooperative arrangement was effected with the Univer- 

 sity of Iowa, represented by Prof. C. C. Nutting, head of the zoological depart- 

 ment, whereby an expedition was sent to Laysan, the largest and most impor- 

 tant island of the group; to ascertain the present condition of the bird rookeries 

 and to collect a series of birds for a museum exhibit." 



This expedition, headed by Prof. Homer R. Dill, reached Laysan, 

 April 24, 191 1, and remained until June 5. Professor Dill writes: 



"Our first impression of Laysan was that the poachers had stripped the 



♦Report of an Expedition to Laysan Islands in 1911, under the joint auspices of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture and the University of Iowa. By Homer R. Dill, Assistant Professor of 

 Zoology in the State University of Iowa, and Wm. Alanson Bryan, Professor of Zoology in the College 

 of Hawaii. Bull. No. 42, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of .\griculture, Washington, 1912, pp. 1-30; 

 pUs. IX. 



tSee U. S. I-ish Com. Bull, for 1903. pp. 1-39; The .\uk, XX, 1903. PP- 384-397; XXI, 1904, pp. 

 8-20. 



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