228 OCEANIC BIRD LIFE 



diving into the water, it catches the fish at the surface with flapping wings. 

 The noddies form a groap which is widely distributed in all the tropical 

 and subtropical waters of the world, its range extending with that of the 

 flying-fishes to the northern and southern subtropical cross-currents. 



A few days south from New Guinea on our way to Australia we encoun- 

 tered the giant birds of the Southern Seas, the albatrosses, first singly and 

 then in slowly increasing numbers as we travelled further south. At the 

 same time we saw the first Australian gannet (Sula serrator), which 

 bears a strong resemblance to our North x\tlantic gannet (Sula bassana). 

 In both cases they were strays or migrants from breeding-grounds much 

 further south. They were the forerunners of the Antarctic bird world; 

 and day by day, as their numbers increased, the typically tropical sea- 

 birds dwindled, to disappear altogether a little south of Brisbane. 



On the morning we lay outside Sydney, waiting for a pilot, there were 

 20 — 25 albatrosses (Diomedea exulans and D. chlororhynchos), swim- 

 ming round the ship, eating the waste that was thrown overboard. All 

 along the east coast of Australia we were greatly surprised to see a large 

 number of pomarine skuas (Stercorarius pomarinus), which persistently 

 followed the ship. On some days there would be as many as 20 to 30 at 

 a time. These, too, were Arctic birds in their winter quarters. 



It was spring (November — December) when we sailed along the 

 Australian east coast, and the sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) were 

 making their way to their breeding grounds along the coasts and on the 

 islands of New Zealand. We would see these dark-brown sheerwaters, 

 about the size of gulls, every day, travelling in flocks of tens of thousands. 

 There were especially many of them off Sydney. They will have spent 

 the southern winter roving about good feeding grounds in the northern 

 Pacific. The routes which these large numbers of birds take to their win- 

 ter quarters is unknown. In Monterey Bay, California, in April 1952, we 

 saw several hundred sooty shearwaters, as well as other southern shear- 

 waters. In New Zealand we caught a few specimens of the same species 

 in their nesting tunnels. 



The climate of southern Australia is very similar to that of south-west 

 Europe. There are no typically tropical birds down here, where we find 

 the first representatives of the groups which predominate further south. 

 Hidden away in small colonies along the southern and south-eastern coasts 

 of Australia lives the little penguin (Eudyptula minor). It is difficult to 

 catch sight of from the sea, both because it rarely ventures many kilo- 

 metres from the coast and because, like other penguins, it swims so deep 

 in the water. 



