52 Le SOUEP, Notes on Sea Birds. ["^isfS" 



Notes on Sea Birds between Sydney and 

 England 



Jiy A. S. Le SOUEF, C.-M.Z.S., Zoological (;ardens, Sydney. 



Durin*^ a voyage from Australia t(j London I took daily notes 

 (^n the birds seen in the herpes of further suijjjlenienting the work 

 already done in this direction by Captain MacGillivray, Dr. Fer- 

 guson and Mr. Alexander. 



I took a record of the temperature day by da)', and find that 

 has something to do with the range of the Wandering Albatross. 

 Between Sydney and latitude 20 south, off the west coast of 

 Africa, the tem])erature ranged from 50 to 65 degrees, and Alba- 

 trosses were seen every day. W'e approached the equator with 

 a strong, cool, southerly wind, which kei)t going until we reached 

 latitude 21 deg. 3)'t^ min. south, when it fell, and the temperature 

 rose to 70 deg. between 4 and 5 p.m. and between 20 and 30 

 Wandering Albatrosses left the ship, apj)arently going south 

 again. 



This was confirmed by Captain Crawford, of the ss. Makiira, 

 who states that he had seen the Wandering Albatrosses as far 

 north as the island of Hoj)ai, in the Friendly Group, which were 

 in much the same latitude as Cardwell, Queensland; this was 

 during a strong southerly gale. 



An interesting observation was that on the second day out from 

 Sydney, when in the vicinity of Cape Howe, I noted several Cape 

 Petrels (Daption capensis). Their dappled coloration, the con- 

 spicuous white mark on the wing and ])eculiar butterfly-like 

 flight make them unmistakable. 



When 1400 miles from Durban and 700 miles south of Mada- 

 gascar, a Curlew- Sandpi])er came on board, and stayed for two 

 days. I took a descri])tion of the bird, and it was kindly identi- 

 fied for me by Mr. T. Wells, of the South Kensington 5luseum, 

 London, as Br alia ferni(/inea, the Curlew-Sandpiper. 



When in latitude 21 deg. 38 min., south longitude 6 deg. 12 

 min. east, and 500 miles from Madagascar, a small Tern (Sterna 

 lon(iipcnnis) was flying round the ship. 



Several land birds were blown off land and came aboard off 

 Cape Fini.sterre, Spain, including two Thrushes, and some Stone- 

 chats. Some of these stayed on the ship until we reached 

 London. 



These observations cover the latter half of September, and the 

 first part of October. 



Owing to the difl'iculty of recognising Petrels (Piiffinu^) on the 

 wing, 1 have not attempted to dififerentiatc them. From the time 

 of leaving Sydney, Sei>tembcr 14th. to leaving .\lbany, they were 

 in sight, somclimcs in ennnnous numbers, more I'spi-ciallv in 



