SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 20560 
c* 
Attu, Alaska 
2 October 1964 - 
Dear Maryanna 9 
The day I left Adak (28 Sept,) I learned my clearance for Amchitka had 
not cone through, so, although we landed there that day, I could not stay to do $ 2 ] 
any work there and Amchitka joins Maui and Unimak on my list of islands I f vo only 
felt through the wheels of a plane, I continued to this westermost A of the Ameri¬ 
can hemisphere and once established in the Loran Station that evening I got them 
to give the "George B. Kelas** a call so I could talk to Max, His gear had not 
arrived here air freight by the time he sailed before but is here now and they 
are returning here tomorrow morning to pick it up. He reports that he collected 
a white wagtail here when he came through earlier and saw a gray wagtail, but I 
have seen no wagtails here except a couple brown ones that hang around the station 
and say bow-wow. Max also reports obtaining a few Procellarids, numbers <S: species 
I did not determine except that he said Laysan albatross were numerous and black- 
foots less so. When they come in tomorrow I will try to finiggle a way to go out 
with them for the rest of the cruise, as I would like to compare grid observations! 
up here with those wdre making in the Central Pacific, 
Shorebirds are rather rare here at present, the only ones I f ve seen are a 
couple wary sandpipers (?) that haven 1 t let me close enough for identification, 
let alone collection, yet. Mo whooper swans yet either, nor were there any on 
Amchitka as we flew its length under ideal observing conditions, I recovered 
the enclosed band y?07-38674 from an imm, gl,-wing gull washed up on the beach 
here, but it will undoubtably prove to be one Bob Jones banded on the little 
islands in the bay less than $0 days ago. 
It is now 1715 hrs,, the plane is due and I want to get this out so 1*11 
describe the battlefield some other time. By the way, my year-list stands at 
31o, but I f m sick of beer (never did like the stuff). 
^rs 
/Cv\ 
Vin Hoeman 
Pacific Project 
Div, Birds 
