1^°08'S along both the 126°W and 119°W meridians. This places them 
roughly 600+ miles east of the Marquesas where they nest. 
One of the most interesting aspects of this species* behavior at 
sea is its habit of "kicking off" of the water. A bird will fly along, 
low to the water, and then vigorously kick off a wave, causing the bird 
to fly parallel along the wave, similar to surfing. This action probably 
allows the bird to see small animals that are being carried along by the 
crest of the wave and then to feed on them. Not all of the storm petrels 
kicked off vigorously. At times they would only travel a few inches 
sidewards. 
Red-billed Tropicbird ( Phaethon athereus ) 
One individual of this species was seen on 27 January at 21°0^ , N- 
118 5^ T W. Evidently they do not range far from the American coast. 
Red-tailed Tropicbird ( Phaethon rubricauda ) 
The distribution of this species (see figure 14 ) is very interesting. 
It appears to me that there were two distinct populations in the area - 
a northern and southern one with a hiatus of some k-20 miles between 
them. Since Red-tailed Tropicbirds are not known to i\est east of this 
area, the birds must have come from areas to the west. I suspect that 
the southern population came from French Polynesia and the northern one 
from the Hawaiian Islands. Twenty-nine birds were seen in the northern 
area of about 1,200 linear miles. In the Cromwell Grid, which was near 
Hawaii and twice as long, only two months out of 15 had higher totals, 
indicating that this Eastern Pacific Area had a higher density than the 
Central Pacific. Four out of the 29 birds,Tl3.8$)were positively first 
year birds - Four out of 16(25$) birds in the southern area were also in 
this age class. It is very likely that most, if nob all, of these birds 
