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* 
Kridler Comments 
( KBC) 
p. 12 
In the Species Account - Populations - the second sentence - con¬ 
sequently since the north cliff face is seldom carefully observed,you had 
better change that - consequently, since that north cliff face cannot be 
carefully observed, or has not been able to be carefully observed. I don’t 
know just how you are going to carefully observe it unless you get down on 
a ship in a small boat and just stay there and watch things, or lower your¬ 
self down with a rope and swing all over the face of the cliff, how are you 
going to carefully observe it. You never did go down to the bottom of the 
DevilfeSlide with us, did you Roger? No, I don’t think you did, but in 
August 1968 John Simcock and I went down to the very bottom as far as we 
could go and we had a real good look at that north cliff face and were very 
surprised at the amount of overhang. There must be at least a 30~^-0 or 50 
foot overhang of the top and looking at it made you wonder just whether per¬ 
haps we weren’t being a little careless walking along the edge of that when 
we are on the top. Even looking down from the top and peering over the top 
of it and looking down the face there is a lot of this cliff face you 
couldn’t see because of this overhang. About the only way vou might be able 
to get an idea of what was down there is by heaving . j rocks against the 
cliff face and getting some idea of the small terns whicn flew out and you 
would get some idea of their abundance. But this again would be an extremely 
rough way of doing it. 
I question very-seriously very much Vanderbilt’s observations that 
this species nested particularly in Middle Valley. They also noted that 
there are no distinct colonies and the birds seem to mix freely with Brown 
Noddies. Of all our times there and with all the nesting taken on we have 
yet to find a nest of this tern in Middle Valley or on the South Slopes. I' 
question that observation very much. I’ll have to check my August 1968 
notes. 
Brown Noddy or Common Noddy.A correction in the last paragraph of Status. 
Change the sentence to read, ’’Birds nest on the ground in both vegetated and 
clear areas.” These birds nest just about everywhere. 
Populations - you speculation that the population estimate for July- {H&) 
August 1966 seems particularly large compared with other numerical estimates / 
but no others have been made at that time of the year. You continue by 
say, ’’Consequently, it is impossible even, to speculate whether this estimate 
Is unrealistically large.” On the basis of our observations there that month 
and that year the birds were extremely abundant and we feel that the estimate 
of 20,000 is very, very conservative. Knowing how common they are, breeding 
there at Pearl and Hermes Reef, also French Frigate Shoals in the summer * 
months, it would be very safe to assume that the peak of the breeding season 
is during the summer months. Therefore, I would say that your sentence be¬ 
ginning with Consequently, should be stricken out, and also your inference 
that this particular count may be wrong in over-estimation is also wrong. 
The birds were extremely abundant at that time, and it certainly needs to be 
reworded. You are assuming that all of Wetmore’s counts are extremely ac¬ 
curate. Having worked an awful lot with Wildlife people in my 60 years I 
have found out that some of the supposed big names in ornithology, unless they 
actually counted birds, got pretty wild with some of their estimates. I 
