OCEANIC BIRD LIFE 



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skua (Stercorarius pomarinus) and the Arctic skua (Stercorarius para- 

 siticus) . 



The observations which we were able to make while fishing in the 

 Kermadec Trench were particularly thorough, and we established, for 

 the first time, that birds which breed in the Kermadecs range well to the 

 south of the islands in search of food. We saw birds from these islands 

 less than 150 kilometres eastward of the northern tip of South Island, 

 New Zealand, some of them belonging to species very rarely found near 

 that country. 



On our voyage across the Pacific from Samoa to Hawaii the daily 

 number of birds observed increased rapidly. This was particularly notice- 

 able between the Equator and latitude 5° N., though we were then many 

 hundreds of kilometres from the nearest islands. We also saw here many 

 more flying-fishes than in the trade-wind belts to the south and north. 

 These facts provide clear testimony of the existence of the rich equatorial 

 counter-current, which flows from the southern tip of the Philippines to 

 the Gulf of Panama. Analyses of the surface water, and Professor Stee- 

 mann Nielsen's measurements of production, confirmed that there is a 

 considerable increase here in the amount of phosphates and plankton. 



In the vicinity of Hawaii, in addition to the sea-birds typical of the 

 Tropics, we saw our first black-footed albatross (Diomedea nigripes), 

 which followed the ship in exactly the same way as its cousins of the 

 southern hemisphere. Like the wandering albatross, it ate the scraps that 

 were thrown overboard and would often ride the sea in small flocks. 



Two of the commonest and most beautiful birds of the South Seas, the red-tailed tropic-bird 

 (Phaeton rubricaudus) and the fairy tern (Gygis alba). Both are almost pure white, and it 

 is a fine sight to see them against the tropical blue sky. We found them especially in the central 

 Pacific around Samoa. 



