MISCELLANEOUS 



BIRDS 



During the first cruise very few l)irds were seen near the Tail of 

 the Banks. No ice was reported and the Labrador current was very 

 Aveak. As the vessel moved northward into the iceberg area, es- 

 pecially above latitude 44°, the temperature of the air and the sea 

 water decreasing, the birds became more abundant. In the im- 

 mediate vicinity of the bergs great numbers of fulmars were found 

 resting in the water among the detritis which was broken or washed 

 off the berg, and were also circling the berg. Whenever the ship 

 moved away numbers of the birds would follow for some distance 

 and then turn back to their iceberg. Apparently there was more 

 food supply in the vicinity of the bergs. The Labrador current 

 containing many forms of marine life, copepods, diatoms, and many 

 varieties of fish are abundant. The marine life was probably brought 

 to the surface by the action of masses of ice in breaking up the seas 

 which were dashed against the bergs thus accounting for the abund- 

 ance of birds. The ice thus was only an incident. It is doubtful 

 whether any food was obtained from the berg other than fresh 

 water. At various times shearwaters, fulmars, murre, kittiwakes, 

 and dovekies were also observed. 



On the second and third cruises, wliile the patrol vessel was near 

 the bergs in arctic water, large numbers of fulmars, some boatswain 

 birds, and murre were found around the ice. On one occasion the 

 vessel was proceeding in a dense fog toward the location of a berg 

 whose position was in doubt, when an increasing number of fulmars 

 were found gathering around the vessel. The fog lifted shortly 

 thereafter and the berg was sighted four miles distant. 



Dui'ing the remainder of the ice patrol the bergs tracked were in 

 warm water, near the Tail of the Banks. It was found that the 

 fuhnare which had been present in large numbers around the bergs 

 to the northward in previous cruises had entirely disappeared from 

 the vicinity of the bergs. This is believed due to the fact that the 

 warmer water of the Gulf stream, which does not contain the same 

 kind of marine life, had mixed with the Arctic water, thereby killing 

 the Arctic marine life and thus destroying the food of the birds, and 

 for that reason the icebergs did not attract the birds. Thus it may 

 be inferred that the presence of fulmars far from land and in the 

 vicinity of the cold water is an indication of ice. 



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