4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 123 



meteorologic, upon the distribution and movements of seabirds in 

 the area. And finally, ADP permitted more rapid statistical handling 

 of the data in order to ascertain (1) whether apparent monthly- 

 population and distribution changes were real or were merely due to 

 inadequate sampling, and (2) whether or not apparent correlations 

 between environmental factors and bird distribution were statistically 

 significant. 



The large number of different parameters to be analyzed required 

 the use of three decks of 80-column punch cards to retain a maximum 

 amount of data in the system. The three decks were called "sighting 

 deck," code number 99, "environment deck," 03, and "day deck," 98 

 (fig. 2). Of the three decks, the sighting deck was the largest, con- 



Figure 2. — Three decks of 80-column punch cards. Data 

 in columns 3-15 interrelate all three decks; environment 

 and sighting decks are further interrelated by data in 

 columns 16-28. 



taining 18,000 cards for the 13,080 sightings. The environment deck 

 was smaller, containing 2800 cards. Each environment card was 

 associated with all the sightings from the time of one set of environ- 

 mental data observations to the time of the succeeding set of observa- 

 tions. Similarly, each of the 305 day cards was associated with all 

 sightings and all environment cards on that day. Thus, each obser- 

 vation had a sighting card or cards, an environment card, and a day 

 card. But it shared the environment and day cards with other 

 sightings. 



The three decks of cards were tied together by common data 

 consisting of ship's name, cruise number, and date. The environ- 

 ment and sighting cards were further linked by hour and position. 



