48 
Diurnal 
Nocturnal 
Soecies 
Pterodroma externa 
Bulwer Petrel 
Storm Petrel 
Pterodroma sp. 
Small Pterodroma 
Blue -faced Booby 
Phoenix/Tahiti Petrel 
Red-footed Booby 
Mi sc. Jaeger/petrel 
Audubon She abater 
Newell Shearwater 
Red-tailed Tropicbird 
"White Tern 
Mottled Petrel 
Prigatebird sp. •• 
White-tailed Tropicbird 
Jaeger sp. 
Misc. Birds 
Percent 
Number 
Number 
1.9 
38 
1.5 
31 
1.3 
26 
7 
1.1 
23 
1.0 
20 
6 
f, 0.8 
17 
o,6 
12 
o.5 
11 
4 
o.5 
10 
0.3 
7 
1 
0.3 
6 
o.3 
6 
0.2 
5 
0.1 
3 
0.1 
3 
0.1 
''2 
0.1 
2 
0.2 
4 
10 
100 
2030 
78 
Lin. Bens. = .7 
This area" is sometimes referred to as "the countercurrent, ^ ^the^ 
south equatorial-count erequatoriar convergence, or simply 5 11 • 
most prominent feature of the section is the presence of large feeding 
flocks of Sooty Terns, dark-phase Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, and^ Pteroarom a. 
These flocks are sometimes very large, containing 1500 to 2000 oiras. 
While the bulk of the birds occur in a relatively small number o^ xlouk 
si^htino-s, there are also numerous individual sightings oi .pte neuroma 
externa and other Shearwaters and Petrels. Phoenix Petrel is the species 
that stands out in my mind as being most characteristic of the section. 
In January the northern edge was noted at about 6°30' R.; the southern ^ ^ 
ejere at about 4°00' N. Most of the area was crossed at night so tnere 
no°good diurnal information for January. However, nocturnal observations^ 
were fairly informative, showing the expected abundance oi Sooty Terns an^ 
Wedge-tailed shearwaters and suggesting that the small Pueroujr ^ 
(leucootera ?) were more abundant in January than in the following morons. 
The February data show only a weak activity peak. Special attention was 
given to the area in April when the support ships doubled bacu m an at¬ 
tempt to fill in nocturnal portions with diurnal observations. Tnrec 
vessels were run^simultaneously and seven ship-days of observations were 
'made between 23 and 25 April. BT casts were increased from 4-hour^y to 
2-hourly intervals during part of that time. 
5° N. to 2° N. 
15 January; 23 February 
# Miles of obs. 
# Bays of obs. 
# Species 
Linear density 
144 
2 
10 
1.826 
