SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON. D. C. 20560 
26 July 1964 
Mary anna Sine How 
Division of Birds 
Smithsonian Institution 
Washington, D. C. 20560 
Dear Maryanna 2 
ship is stopping by to pick up 
St. Paul in the near future. As 
a. rumor* 
Thanks for the prompt action on the cannon net* ¥e 
found soon after arriving that the Arctic Fox and the Pacific 
Project don*t get along very well together. They insist on 
throwing seal bones in our nets and then chewing off the 
shelf loops. All of our 20 meter nets now have gigantic holes 
in them and are virtually unrepairable. We had to rebuild one 
the other day. The nets are travelling as was expected in 
the wind. We tried tethering the nets but the wind just takes 
the knots with the rest of the net. So unless the wind comes 
from the right direction we have a heck of a time. One must 
be careful where one walks and talks. The seal carcasses are 
literally moving around on the ground from seething hordes of 
maggots and the air is black with hordes of humming metallic 
green blow flies the size of horses. We have thought of band¬ 
ing them with size $) bands but decided the returns would not 
justify the time spent. The Gray-crowned Rosy Finches are get¬ 
ting the heck banded out of them. We have just finished up 
are first 100 bands on them. To the present time we have band¬ 
ed about 110 birds. We caught two turnstones which had to be 
dispatched due to the mist net injuring one and a fox chewing 
up the other. The cannon net should work wonders as these birds 
congregate by the hundreds in close net flocks. We have worked 
around them enough now where they don ! t pay mucjpc attention to 
us. 
It is rumored that a 
our mail for transport to 
usual It is probably just 
The net poles we bought from the tent company are alittle 
weak for this wind but better than Bleitz’s, 
The Fisheries boat will go from here to the Aleutians in 
mid-September. I estimate by this time the work will be finish¬ 
ed in the Pribilofs. Would it be in line with the Pacific Project 
If we were to take the boat to the Aleutians and work from Atka 
up the chain to Cold Boy and return to Anchorage in lieu of St. 
Lawrence? The boat will return to the Pribilofs and we may try 
to get one guy on it to make an at sea survey If this meets with 
