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Wirtz, William 0. 
19o4~ - 
Saw many hundreds of Sooty Terns today, but only 
collected one due to proximity of Johnston. Also collected 
an a duly nine-faced Booty east of Johnston this morning. 
Saw several terns with orange streamers. 
Had several rain squalls during the day and 
into the night. Bird sightings decreased fairly rapidly 
as we left Johnston Behind. 
June 9- -Last night was a:, real dilly. Onv course 
cutting into wind and sea bounced the ship so badly 
that no one got much sleep. I was too busy just trying 
wo stay in the bunk to think about sleeping. In case 
all this writing looks like I'm drunk it's because our 
quarters are directly over the fantail, and hence over 
the dual screws, and everything vibrates pretty badly. 
Today was the quietest yet, with one watch seeing 
no birds and others only two or three. We started all 
night watches last night with the flood lights and the 
bridge on and pointed slightly aft so as not to interfere 
with navigation. The night watch, as usual, produced 
little of note. However, one of our unidentified 
Ptsrodroma 7 s flew aboard during the night and was found 
huddled on the deck this morning 
by Mr. Asnton. l don't know what it is , except probably 
the genus, so I'll leave it to someone more qualified, 
it is one of the two Pteroaroma' s we've seen quite a 
few of this trip though. We saw two unusual birds this 
afternoon. They crossed the bow heading north together, 
flying with slow, steady flaps. They were large, gull 
or skua, perhaps; uniform dark above, dark neck with a 
sharp dividing line to aple breast and belly's wings 
broad and rounded, with perhaps a trace 
of a light patch at the base of the primaries. They 
were definitely not boobies. I think this is tbe same 
bird we saw one of the first day's out. 
We saw several Pfcerodroma sp.? today and one 
Harcourt's storm petrel. Also one red-tailed tropicbird. 
I collected another, sooty tern this evening to bring our 
total specimens uO cwelve. 
