S'tf-.AU. 
KEEP BIRD PLUMAGE OUT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, nearly halfway to China, lies the little Island 
of Laysan, one of the westernmost of the Hawaiian group. This island is not occupied by 
man, but is the home of many birds, among them a species of albatross. So numerous are 
these albatrosses that were one to walk among them—as he could freely, for they are not 
afraid of man — he would have to pick his way carefully to avoid kicking the birds or tread¬ 
ing on their eggs. 
These albatrosses have a dance, of which, apparently, they are very fond, a series of set 
figures during which the birds circle about each other, fence with their bills, point their 
bills to the zenith and groan, and do many other amusing things. It is a very polite dance— 
the birds bow to each other frequently during its continuance. Sometimes one will stop in 
the middle of the dance and finding a twig will pick it up in its bill and offer it, with a idee 
bow, to its partner, which does not take the twig, however, but picking up another offers 
that in turn with a bow. This closes the incident, the twigs are dropped and the dance is 
resumed from the point at which it was interrupted. It is reported by two naturalists that 
have visited Laysan that if a man bows to one of these albatrosses, the birds will bow to him 
in return, presumably on the supposition that he is beginning the dance. 
Were a moving picture of this dance to be taken and exhibited, how it would interest 
and amuse! Millions of people throughout the world would find enjoyment in such a film. 
No moving picture has yet been secured of the dance, but it will not be long, in this day of 
keen search for novelty of subjects, befoi’e we shall have moving pictures, not only of this, 
but of the dances and various evolutions of many other birds (for the albatrosses are by no 
means singular in this regard) — provided we save the birds. 
We nearly lost these albatrosses. The Japanese planned an expedition to Laysan and 
Lisiansky islands to exterminate certain §pecies, including the albatrosses, for their plumage, 
which was to be shipped to Paris for the millinery trade. 
As soon as we learned of their intention (at that time I had the honor to hold a position 
in the U. S. Department of Agriculture with duties pertaining to the preservation of birds 
and game) we appealed to President Roosevelt, who immediately made a Federal bird reser¬ 
vation of Laysan and adjacent islands. We have sixty-three such reservations — non- 
agricultural tracts of land owned by the United States that are the haunts of large colonies 
of interesting birds. Any one who injures or disturbs the birds on one of these reservations 
is liable to prosecution by the Federal Government. One of the latest to be established was 
the subject of one of the last official acts of President Taft, who, on the third of March, 
1913, set aside the whole Aleutian Archipelago in Alaska as a bird reservation. Later, on 
the 19th of March, President Wilson practically made a bird reservation of the Canal Zone, 
by prohibiting the killing of any birds in that tract. 
The Japanese failed to regard the President’s proclamation concerning Laysan — perhaps 
they did not know of it — and sent their expedition to the island as had been planned. 
Laysan is out of the usual line of travel and the Japanese were on the island nine months 
before we learned of their presence there. As soon as we did learn of it, however, we made 
arrangements with the Revenue Cutter Service to send the Thetis (then stationed on the 
Pacific Coast) to Laysan. The vessel went at the earliest practicable moment to the scene 
of the slaughter, found twenty-three Japanese on Laysan and Lisiansky islands, arrested 
and took them to Honolulu (where they were tried and convicted) and confiscated and 
destroyed the plumage. 
