OPTIONAL FORM NO. 10 
5010-104 
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 
Memorandum 
to : Mr. ¥. E. Banko date: May hi 1961; 
FROM : Dr* Charles A. Ely 
subject: Droppings of 27 April 
Dear Win: 
The Droppings of 27 April arrived recently and contain the fuel 
for a very hot controversy which I would like to join* Pat and others 
will very possibly add their comments when their Droppings arrive. 
Pm referring specifically to the section describing Dr* Wickstead’s 
comments on sea bird foods and which present a far different picture 
from what we have observed personally, I feel that the six points 
given present a misleading picture and that formal decisions should 
await more data. Perhaps oor field observations are still unknown 
although I’m sure some were included in the at-sea report* This 
illustrates again the need for more free time for our field people 
to write up and think about their data* 
I’ll discuss only one point now — No* U, Cephalapods DO (at 
least sometimes) occur near the surface during daylight hours and we 
have reported this* Our men on the at sea cruises have observed this 
frequently* We have on a number of occasions had squid washed into 
the whale boat while we were in feeding flocks* I have handled such 
squid myself and on at least one occasion one was preserved by the 
U, H* men* Birds with fresh squid in their crops and throats have 
been collected during daylight hours and often regurgitate such after 
being brought aboard. This can be easily demonstrated by checking 
the Me Bee cards and correlating time of day collected and food habits. 
I’d be interested in the results* 
Also Doug Whitman observed squid at the surface on one of the 
M30 cruises. Larry Huber has seen squid ’’leap” out of the water when 
pursued by tuna. Fresh squid are brought into Sand Island by Sooty 
Terns at all hours of the day. The presence of feeding flocks over 
squid has been observed several times whether it was specifically 
recorded or not. 
What I’m trying to point out is that before we jump to a lot 
of conclusions we should take a look at what our own people are finding. 
Please^ no circular letter until we have a chance to present our data* 
The droppings are serving a useful purpose because this issue raised 
my ire and you can be sure that food habit data will be better and 
more frequently documented from now on. 
