LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY, 



Washington, D. C., January 11, 1912. 



SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith for publication Bul- 

 letin 42 of the Biological Survey, "A Report of an Expedition to 

 Laysan Island in 1911," in two parts, the first by Prof. Homer R. 

 Dill, of the State University of Iowa, and the second by Prof. Win. 

 Alanson Bryan, of the College of Hawaii, Honolulu. Prof. Bryan 

 had previously visited the island in 1903 and was thus able to 

 note the changes which had occurred during the intervening eight 

 years. The Hawaiian Islands Reservation was established by Exec- 

 utive order in 1909 to serve as a refuge and breeding place for the 

 millions of sea birds and waders that from time immemorial have re- 

 sorted there yearly to raise their young or to rest while migrating. 

 In 1 909 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 dis- 

 patched 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 1911 a cooperative 

 arrangement was effected with the University of Iowa, represented 

 by Prof. C. C. Nutting, head of the zoological department, whereby 

 an expedition was sent to Laysan, the largest and most important 

 island of the group, to ascertain the present condition of the bird 

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

 Through the cooperation of the Secretary of the Treasury and the 

 Commandant of the Revenue Cutter Service the revenue cutter 

 -Thetis was placed at the disposal of the party. The members were 

 transported from Honolulu to the island in April, and two months 

 later returned to Honolulu. Through the courtesy of the Secretary 

 of War transportation was also furnished on Army transports for 

 members of the party and their equipage between San Francisco 



