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The feeding behaviour of the Auckland Island banded dotterel (Charadrius bicinctus exilis Falla 1978) was studied at Enderby Island for 12 days in April 1980. Up to 155 dotterels were at Derry Castle Reef, foraging along the rocky shore, frequenting several habitats from the maritime zone to the sublittoral fringe at low tide. The midlittoral zone was the source of the greatest biomass of food and may be even more important in the future as the maritime sward regenerates to taller denser vegetation. Only 15-20% of daylight time was spent foraging, with peaks at early morning, noon and evening. Amphipods up to 2 cm long were staple diet. They were obtained mainly by pecking in algae (seaweed) and in rock pools. The other prey was large also, comprising polychaetes, oligochaetes, isopods, crabs, insects and spiders. Probably most or all of the population winters at Derry Castle Reef.

G.S. Tuck & H. Heinzel. 1978. 292 pages; 48 plates in colour, 313 maps, 138 line drawings. Collins, London.

1978. Oxford University Press. 1012 pp; 404 figures, maps, photographs and field sketches; 14 col. and 18 b & w plates; 19 appendices; bibliography; 275 x 195 mm

Some bird observations for late August-early September 1978, are summarised. The Siberian tattler is recorded for the first time in Western Samoa and two seabirds (crested tern and little tern). A new breeding record for the brown booby is also described. Some brief comments are made on comparative behaviour with Fijian land birds.

Black-fronted terns (Chlidonias albostriatus) were studied between December 1974 and February 1976 along the Waitaki River system and around Otago Harbour. Numbers of terns given in this paper are from a monthly census taken during this period.

Records of wedge-tailed shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus) made between 1960 and 1978 in the south-west Pacific are collated to indicate changes in their annual distribution between New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. The absence of wedge-tailed shearwaters from the study area on migration from June to September is shown, and migration tracks to and from their supposed wintering grounds in the eastern Pacific are suggested. Reference is made to feeding, and to birds seen in feeding flocks with wedge-tailed shearwaters. The apparent absence of avian food piracy on the species is discussed. An attempt is made, with little success, to deduce the location of breeding sites in the study region.