hey fly to and fro their wings are liable to touch the line which is
spread out over the sea. Sometimes they will hit the line with the tips
of their wings, and then there is no resulting capture, but sooner or
later a bird will touch the line with the part of the wing above the
elbow-joint (humerus). It seems that on feeling the contact the bird
suddenly wheels in the air, thereby causing a loop in the line which
tightens round the bone. At any rate the next thing that happens is that
the bird is struggling on the line and may be hauled on board.

The difficulty is to get a line which is light enough to fly in the air,
but yet strong enough to hold the large birds, such as albatross, without
breaking. We tried fishing line with no success, but eventually managed
to buy some 5-ply extra strong cobbler's thread, which is excellent for
the purpose. But we wanted not only specimens, but also observations of
the species, the numbers which appeared, and their habits, for little is
known as yet of these sea birds. And so we enlisted the help of all who
were interested, and it may be said that all the officers and many of the
seamen had a hand in producing the log of sea birds, to which additions
were made almost hourly throughout the daylight hours. Most officers and
men knew the more common sea birds in the open ocean, and certainly of
those in the pack and fringes of the Antarctic continent, which, with
rare exceptions, is the southern limit of bird life.

A number of observations of whales, illustrated by Wilson, were made, but
the results so far as the seas from England to the Cape and New Zealand
are concerned, are not of great importance, partly because close views
were seldom obtained, and partly because the whales inhabiting these seas
are fairly well known. On October 3, 1910, in latitude 42 deg. 17' S. and
longitude 111 deg. 18' E., two adults of Balaenoptera borealis (Northern
Rorqual) were following the ship close under the counter, length 50 feet,
with a light-coloured calf some 18-20 feet long swimming with them. It
was established by this and by a later observation in New Zealand, when
Lillie helped to cut up a similar whale at the Norwegian Whaling Station
at the Bay of Islands, that this Rorqual which frequents the
sub-Antarctic seas is identical with our Northern Rorqual;[38] but this
was the only close observation of any whales obtained before we left New
Zealand.

General information with regard to such a