SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 20560 
27 August 1964 
Mr. Wiiis t on B anko 
Division of Birds 
fc _ u i an Institution 
Wash:’ ngton, D. C. 20560 
Dear Tin? 
Thanks for you recent letters and the change of 
plans. In lieu of your last letters I have decided 
to make a survey of the Aleutian chain starting at 
Attu and -forking hack. This Is essentially what hi 1 
would have been doing. We will also endeavor to hire 
a fishing vessel to take us out 
and shearwaters. The cruise of 
well with ay general plan and should afford some good 
information that time of year. I have written Er&nch 
and will also wire him tomorrow due to the short time 
left to contact him. 
and collect some petrels 
the We" ez works in very 
We are leaving St. George on September 4 for St. 
Paul and from St. Paul on the for hikolsi. I ex¬ 
pect to be in hikolski about one week working Umnak Is. 
We then plan to go to Anchorage and meet with Lt~ Col. 
Wiley to arrange passes for Attu, Shcmya, Adak and any 
other zxxsiss: areas needing security passes, he can also 
arrange to stay at military installations while working 
in some of those areas. How long we will be in each of 
these areas will depend on how much of interest we find. 
I haven 1 t worked out a definite schedule yet and would 
have to see Bob Peeve in Anchorage to find out where all 
the air strips are t at they can land us. Once I reach 
Anchorage I think that I can fix out mail drops and a 
cliedule. 
u 
I think Mat St. Lawrence Island is out since it 
would entail purchasing camping gear and no assurance 
of success not to mention the cruise out of Adak, While 
one of us is on t 0 cruise the other will probably work 
on the lie or Islands or that vicinity. 
I will let you know more definite pirns at a later 
date« 
he gawds 
Max C Thor son 
