no. 3609 DATA PROCESSING SEABIRDS KING, WATSON, GOULD 7 



low number of forms involved, yet it includes all known taxa of sea- 

 birds and has sufficient leeway for most synonymy and the inclusion 

 of land-based accidentals, migrants, and marine mammals and reptiles. 

 The first digit represents class; the second, order; the third, family; 

 the fourth, genus; and the fifth and sixth, species or field-recognizable, 

 nonoverlapping subspecies. The code for central Pacific Ocean birds 

 used in this pilot program is given in table 1. Codes for seabirds 

 (presently being revised) and marine mammals of the world are 

 available from the Smithsonian Institution. Birds that are identifiable 

 only to class, order, family, genus, and/or species may be entered and 

 retrieved at the same level of reliable identification. 



When the code translation of a single sighting involves more than 

 one item of information in any category, additional sighting cards are 

 needed for complete and unique expression. Thus, a complex sighting 

 involving four species of birds of three color phases and of three age 

 categories requires 10 cards. These 10 cards are tied together by their 

 identical times and by a special code key known as the association key. 

 A "0" in the association column (35) indicates a simple sighting 

 expressible by one card. A "1" in the column indicates that the card 

 has information pertaining to the same sighting as all other cards with 

 the same time and a "1" in the association column. A sighting of a 

 mixed flock of sooty terns and brown noddies feeding together would 

 be represented by two cards each bearing a "1" association code 

 number. When two or more cards of a sighting have identical data 

 in the ship, cruise, date, time, position, species, and number fields 

 but differ in other fields such as age or behavior, then the numbers 2, 

 3, 4, or 5 are used in the association column to preserve uniqueness. 

 This is necessary because the computer automatically rejects, as 

 duplicates, cards with identical data in columns 1-42. If a sighting- 

 involves two sooty terns, one adult and one immature, the first card 

 bears the association number 1 and the second, number 2. A sighting 

 of three sooty terns, one feeding, one sitting on the water, and a third 

 searching, would have three cards with association code numbers 1,2, 

 and 3 respectively. If, on the other hand, two or more different 

 sightings have identical data in the ship, cruise, date, time, position, 

 species, and number fields but the birds were not associated in the 

 same flock, we employ the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, or in the code to indicate 

 uniqueness but nonassociation. 



Note that "0" in the association code has a double function. It may 

 be used merely to denote a simple, one-card sighting or one of five 

 concurrent nonassociated sightings. When more than five nonasso- 

 ciated sightings occurred simultaneously, it was necessary to adjust 

 the time of the supernumerary sightings by one minute to preserve 

 uniqueness. 



