2 
"in- 
The POBSP system for data collecting is rapidly to collect 
dividual distributions" and to use techniques like banding, streamering, 
painting, direction of movement, etc., as efficient shortcuts. On the 
whole the data are necessarily sketchy,compared to the much more readily 
obtained data such as on landbirds or mammals. Even so the knowledge of 
species distributions in the SIC area is better than it has been. I feel, 
though, that current POBSP project methods are missing an important "short¬ 
cut." This shortcut applies to the fourth question asked concerning dis¬ 
tribution: Why a particular bird is where it is when it is. The answer 
to this question is, perhaps, the final goal of distribution studies in 
the sense that first one must find the "what's", "when's", and "where's." 
I reason the following way: When a bird is observed to be at a position 
in time-space coordinates it is unlikely that this is a mere chance oc¬ 
currence. It is well recognized (but not satisfactorily explained) that 
biological entities are unique in the way that they do not conform to the 
irreversible law of entropy which says (roughly) ohat all things seer., the 
lowest state of order. By empirical observations at any rate birds are 
never (conditional) randomly distributed. If the bird is non-randomly 
placed in a frame of reference it follows that a correlation exisos be¬ 
tween a parameter of that frame of reference and the bird's coordinates. 
The nature of the correlation, to an observer, is the answer to "why" the 
blpd is there. The bird, however, has no cause and effect relationship 
with which to guide its non-random habits; it is correlating with the 
reference parameter because if it didn't it would die. This is straight¬ 
forward selective association. Birds are where their needs are but they 
don't "go-to" their needs, as they possess no volition. 
A bird's requirements are remarkably simple. They are three in num¬ 
ber: l) Two sexes; 2) a place to put an egg or eggs; 3) An energy source. 
The seabird requires from the environment an island or land for nesting 
and a source of metabolic energy. 
The nature of the food-need varies from species to species, seldom 
(if ever) are cases found where diets show 100 percent overlap. The ob¬ 
vious step is to suggest that if one can determine the degree and sign of 
correlation between a bird and various food sources, one has a shortcut 
enabling him to understand the distribution of birds, i.e., by measuring 
the associated parameter. For instance, I have found that there is a 
species of bird which shows 100 percent positive correlation with a source 
of metabolic energy — AIR; I have never seen this bird underwater. Surely, 
correlations with biological and physical properties of uhe ocean surface 
are not as dramatic nor as easy to determine, but a program conducting 
pelagic bird studies and not collecting simultaneous oceanographic data ^ 
should have "biological" in quotes and should reserve the word "ecological" 
for more unified programs. 
The current POBSP would benefit by: 
1) Taking pains to outfit all survey vessels with: 
a) BT and winch 
b) Water analysis lab 
