Husted, Dayle N. 
196^ 
25 
Bobby, the captain is very good about it, but the others don't seem too happy 
to do it. The birds were tagged Wo. 0510-11-12-13-14 and they were collected 
at longitude 151°, latitude 19° -17°. The birds were checked for parasites 
and Mallophaga and mites were found. One of the Dark-rumped Petrels had a 
piece of fresh squid in its mouth. The Dark-rumped Petrel had white rumps. 
The birds all showed some signs of molt, but were mostly in new plumage. 
Their brood patches were fully feathered, so I believe they will start breeding 
about next month. The Dark-rumped Petrels were larger than the White-necked 
Petrel. The White -necked Petrel also had tinges of dark on its neck, but it 
wasn't very pronounced. In all the birds, the distal 2/3 of the feet were 
black and the peroximal l/3 was pink. The outside toe was black all the way 
to the ankle? The legs were pinkish purple, the gape was pink with bluish 
edges. The bill was black and the iris was dark brown. During the day, several 
flocks were seen, they were composed of Sooty Terns, Dark-rumped Petrels, 
Wedgetails, and Petrel sp. Some small flocks were seen that were composed of 
Petrels sp. and Wedgetails. Also during the day, Fairy Terns and Tropicbirds 
were seen. Many of the Dark-rumped Petrels were seen sitting on the water 
I 
and the ship got surprisingly close to them. Again I was the blunderbuss. 
This morning I could have shot 5 Dark-rumped Petrel, but only got one of the 
bunch because I couldn’t get shells into that monstrosity fast enough. 
July 2 3, 19^4 : Today the number of birds and flocks decreased. The number of 
Dark rumped Petrels decreased sharply. Some Dark rumped Petrels were seen 
sitting in the water this morning but with some restraint we didn’t shoot them. 
Last night Bobby said it was oke to go ahead and shoot and he said he would 
tell the mates to stop. I think I will only shoot when he is at the wheel though 
because good relations with the crew is a necessity. Today we mostly caught up 
