UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
ADDRESS REPLY TO 
CHIEF, BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY, 
AND R£FER TO 
Bi-$ May 24, 1923. 
Lay san 
Dr. Alexander We tic ore, 
c/o Bishop Museum, 
Honolulu, Hawaii. 
Dear Doctor Wetmore: 
1 have received with much interest your wire concerning 
your visit to Lisianski and other islands, and also your letter 
of April 30, giving information concerning your work up to that 
time. 
1 am highly pleased that you have secured such a fine 
lot of seals and also that the rahhits have Been exterminated 
not only on Lay san hut on other islands where they had Been 
introduced. It certainly was fortunate that we were able to 
have an expedition to Laysan this year to save the complete 
wiping out of the vegetation. As it is, the results of the 
rabBit pest appears to have Been the loss of one species of 
Bird. 
You do not mention having taken any specimens of Lay san 
Teal, But that seventeen were seen. I trust you will not fail 
to get a reasonable percentage of these Birds, since, as they 
are left to themselves, they can readily breed Back. 1 hope 
also that you secured at least one nest and set of eggs. It 
is extremely interesting that you have found the seals so numer¬ 
ous on some of the islands visited and have been able to get 
photographs ana learn something of their habits. This informa¬ 
tion will of course all Be new and will enable you .to prepare 
a most valuable contribution to the life history of these prac¬ 
tically unknown animals. I hope that you may get some unknown 
species on your visit to Wake and some of the other islands. 
Owing to the extreme rarity of specimens of the seal in museums, 
I wish you would not fail to get a total of anywhere from fifteen 
to twenty specimens, of which the larger part should be full-grown 
males and females. It may be many years before there will be 
such an opportunity as you are now having to get these animals, 
and it appears to me a pity not to take advantage of it to get a 
goodly number. In addition to getting the skins ana skulls of 
fifteen or twenty of the animals it would be a good thing if you 
could get at least a couple of complete skeletons of an old male 
and an old female. 
