Sea Birds

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30206, 10 August 1963, Page 3

Sea Birds

Sea-Birds. By Mary E. Gillham. Museum Press. 144 PP. This book is one of a series of instructions to young ornithologists. but would be most useful to anyone of any age group interested in sea-birds the world over. Besides the classification. feeding and breeding habits of all types of sea-birds, the author has covered such aspects as the dynamics of bird flight, both above and below the water, conservation of heat, protective colouring, how sea-birds cope with life on land and the evolution of new species in new habitats.

Travelling round the world in search of material, the author has compiled an interesting chart. This shows the distribution of different types of sea-birds from England to New Zealand and the apparent dependence of some types on temperature, created by the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Humbolt Current, the latter accounting for the finding of Penguins on the Galapagos Islands, right on the Equator Though produced in England, this book is of value to ornithologists in this country as New Zealand seabirds, particularly gannets, penguins and mutton birds are well covered.