-onday, September 9i 19^3 
Midway Island, Pacific 
Dear Maryanna, , 
Dow that I have had enough time here to look around I am absolutely 
convinced that tv/o months here will be too little to accomplish what is needed . 
It is a welcome change to get back to work after sitting on my duff in Honolulu. 
I am fully convinced that the Navy is the gruuj) of good guys in ou±? little 
saga by the sea and the Army is the bad guys, l^ereas the Army were one overblown pain, 
the Navy personell have been all help and generally good people to work with. McDaniels 
is not here, hut there is a smooth interchange of information and help between the 
people who run this island and myself - In short, they want to help and this is a far 
cry from the Army*s attitude towards this whole endeavour. 
I have several s'all problems and questions. F5_rst of all, the equipment has 
not yet arrived, and I am lost without my trusty Peterson in this morass of new birds. 
All that has arrived in the six trunk shipment is the box of chemicals and poisons 
which are of no immediate use v/ithout the rest of the gear. When it all ^ets here, I 
am going to fly it in one mass to Kure as the Navy has graciously consented to schedule 
a special flight for our needs v^^hen we desire it ( Compare that v/ith the Army bungleing ). 
If you have a mofcent, how about checking as far as possible on the Shipment from your 
end: If it does not arrive on tomorrows flight I am going to begi.n probing from this end 
to find out v/here it is ( God only knov/s with the Army and Ft. Detrick having their hands 
on it. ) as a little help from us might speed its arrival here. 
Since arriving here I have collected birds v/ith impunity and suprisingly damn 
good resMts. The first night here I stumbled into a flock of shearwaters as they came in 
to roost for the evening: I managed to capture 31 of these and found two banded which I 
collected. These birds are moulting. In the past two ninghts I have caught a number more 
( I have had to release all unbanded birds without bands because the equipment is not 
yet here with the bands therein. ) and now have raised the total of captures of banded 
birds to 11, five of which are now skins and show almost every stage in the feather replacem 
ment for this species# I have had to prepare these using ray ov/n parasitology sissors, an 
old scalpal from my shading kit, the wrong kind of cotton from the Navy PX, cornmeal ( a 
substance hated by Smithsonian preparators ), and a couple of pairs of heraostats and 
small forceps which I threv/ in with my film on a hunch that they might come in handy. 
Suprisingly, for this primitive equipment and terrible grade of cotton, these and 
a sandpiper ( v/hich flew into an Airplane propeller losing a wing in the encounter ) i 
have turned out to be reasonably good skins: If they don*t leak fat they will be nice 
skins. I have also taken a few skeletons. Later this v/eek I plan to get three of the 
flight of Bristle-thighed Curlews which are here. 
That ends the nev/s part of this letter ( By the way I*m fine, How are you ) ^ 
and v/hat follows are the field notes v/hich I have accumulated in the past three days. 
My notebooks are all in the equipment and I think that these would be better off home than 
on the ten or so scraps of paper where they are at the moment. 
Here beginneth the Epistle of Ludwig: 
Honolulu, Sept. 1, 19t>3 
I was amazed to find a large flight of shorebirds C principally Golden and 
Black-bellied plovers ) foraging in the Punch-Bowl Crater several thousand feet above 
sea-level. There were other species present numbering in total about 600 individuals: 
Most were the Golden Plover. 
Honolulu, Sept 1965 - 
Drove up the Tantalus traiij. and down the Round Top drive: Part way down 
the drive is a state park. There I found several small warbler—like birds with 
Red bills, legs, and secondaries, lellow breasts, greyish, and grey blue backs; I 
need a Peterson. 
