1911-12.] Body Temperature of Diving and Swimming Birds. 23 
Hope, and he was surprised, as the title of his communication implies (“ Note 
sur la basse temperature de quelques Palmipedes longipennes ”), that the 
temperature should be lower than that of most other birds, considering the 
active habits of these Palmipedes and the vigorous and sustained flights of 
which they are capable. He was inclined to account for the low figures 
which he found by supposing that by some chance the individuals which 
he happened to secure had been subjected to an involuntary fast, but there 
was no good reason for such a supposition. 
His observations were made on two species of albatross ( Diomedea 
exulans and D. chlororhynchos), the Cape petrel ( Procellaria capensis), 
three species of the Stercorariidae (jaegers and skuas) — one Lams 
catarrhactes, and two others undetermined. The albatrosses and skuas were 
caught with a baited hook and line, and had no other injury except that 
produced by the hook ; the others were first wounded in the wing by a 
shot-gun and then captured alive. In the latter the rectal temperature 
was taken from ten to fifteen minutes after the birds were shot, but while 
they were still alive. Like his predecessors in the work, Brown-Sequard 
makes no statement as to whether the birds remained quiet or struggled 
immediately before or while the temperature was being recorded. 
The mean of nine observations on as many individuals in the two 
species of albatross was 40° v 75 C., the maximum being 41 0, 9 and the 
minimum 39°*6 ; in four specimens of the Cape petrel the mean was 39 0, 77, 
— maximum 40 o, 2, minimum 39 0, 4 ; in Lams catarrhactes * (Le cordonnier) 
the mean of six observations on six individuals was 40° T 5, with a maximum 
of 408 and a minimum of 39°'6 ; and in two other specimens of the same 
family, species undetermined, the figures were 41°*5 and 41 0, 1, giving a 
mean of 41° *3. These observations were all made on the same day 
(6th April) with the temperature of the air at 23° C., in latitude 32° South. 
The species examined by Brown-Sequard all belong to the order 
Longipennes, and the temperatures are somewhat higher than Martins found 
for the members of the same family in the Northern hemisphere. Brown- 
Sequard believes that this difference may be due to the influence of the 
warmer climate, Martins’ observations having been made where the air 
temperature was in the neighbourhood of zero centigrade. 
III. Methods adopted in Present Investigation. 
The greater number of the birds on which the present series of observa- 
tions were made were secured amongst the Orkney Islands, in the sounds 
* According to Hie British Museum Catalogue of Birds , 1896, this is the common skua 
( Megalestris skua). 
