242 Reviews [, Vol. 111 of ornithology or in ornithologiststhemselves, read without removing the attending adult, caused10% of this book. It's fun.--ALAN H. BRUSH,Mystic, Connect- the murreletsto desert.Consequently, he reportsonly icut, USA. two yearly estimatesof hatching success,those ob- tained after the teambegan to usetemperature probes for detecting the presenceand absenceof incubating adults. One has to concur with Gaston'swry assess- ment of the typicalworking conditions:"average slope about 45ø , considerably steeper in places,often slick with rain, and cut by ravinesfilled with unstablescree The Auk 111(1):242-243, 1994

... not ideal conditions for wandering about in the Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/111/1/242/5167940 by guest on 27 September 2021 dark." Largely deprived of the visual sense,the ob- The Ancient Murrelet. A Natural History in the serversproved admirably adaptable: "With practice, Queen Charlotte Islands.--Anthony J. Gaston.1992. it was possible to tell from the sound of the landing T & AD Poyser Ltd., London, and Academic Press, whether or not an arriving was carrying an egg. San Diego, California. xviii + 249 pp., 22 black-and- Femalescarrying eggsgenerally hit the ground with white plates, 69 text figures, 22 tables, 2 appendices. a muchlouder thump." In the end, this work achieves ISBN 0-85661-070-4.$34.95.--Leadership in ecologi- a pleasingblend of solid quantitativescience and de- cal researchon north-temperate-zoneseabirds has long scriptive natural history. been associatedmainly with the region of the north- The book has two parts,the first being a collection easternAtlantic, which enjoysa tradition of detailed, of four chapters that compile and review what is innovative work spanning severaldecades. Although known about the Ancient Murrelet throughout its the temperateNorth Pacificis home to severalof the range, including comparativenotes on three conge- samespecies that figure prominently in the Atlantic, neric species.This material (about 100 pages) is fol- and also has a host of interesting speciesfound no- lowed by an account of original researchon Reef where else, Pacific had until recently received Island. The author usestwo chaptersto introduce the comparatively little attention. Few important ad- Queen Charlotte Islands and methods employed in vancesin seabirdbiology had comefrom the northern the study, then organizes the diverse results of the North Pacific, which tended to leave those of us who study in a suite of seven chapters. Some of the latter work in the region harboringa slight inferiority com- material is already available in a dozen papers by plex. Happily, this situation is beginning to change. Gastonand his associates,but I was impressedby how First, we are learning that in someinstances the pop- much of it is new. Basically,most of chapter 8 (on ulation dynamicsof sharedspecies differ greatly be- attendance and behavior at the colony) and chapter tween the North Pacific and North Atlantic. The Pa- 14 (population dynamics) are reviews of published cific work, therefore, is more than just a rehash of work, whereas other chapters(on nesting habitat and that which was already known. It takes an important phenology, eggs and chicks, the behavior of non- step toward understandinggeographic variation in breedersat the colonyand of murreletsoffshore) give demography--variationthat would not havebeen an- information that is mostlyunavailable except by read- ticipatedfrom any casualcomparison of the environ- ing this book. Original or derived, previously pub- ments,which appearsuperficially similar. Second,we lished or not, it is a welcome development to have are starting to see the resultsof in-depth work on everything known about this curious little seabird speciesunique to the region. Tony Gaston'sbook, the neatly compiled in one place. In that respect,readers first monographictreatment of any North Pacifical- will also appreciatethe substantialbibliography that cid, is one encouragingsign that seabird researchin accompaniesthe text. the temperateNorth Pacificis coming of age. If there is a unifying theme to the book, it is the This piece is basedon six seasonsof fieldwork con- questionof why the Ancient Murrelet (and others of ducted on Reef Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands the genus ),alone among seabirds, of . Recognizingthe value of long- evolved a highly precocial mode of early develop- term studies in dealing with long-lived birds, the ment. Chicks leave their burrows and make their haz- author is mildly apologetic for the duration of the ardousway to the seaabout two days after hatching. project,but he neednot be. Againstconsiderable odds, Gaston highlights the issue at the outset (p. 2) and Gaston and his coworkers obtained a wealth of in- revisitsit occasionallythroughout the book. In a clos- formation on the breeding biology of Ancient Mur- ing chapterdevoted to the topic, he reviewsseveral relets, which not only are nocturnal at land and nest previous hypothesesto explain precocity in rnurre- underground,but alsoare extremelyintolerant of dis- lets, finds them all unsatisfactory,and offershis own turbance during incubation. To top it off, they rear explanation. their chicks entirely at sea. Any shortcomingsin the ! have a small problem with the terminology. Gas- results of this work can be fairly attributed to those ton is not the first to apply the term "precocial" to specialtraits of the study . Gastonlearned that rnurrelets,but becausethe young are not capableof reachinginto an occupiednest chamberonce, even self-feedinguntil they attain approximatelyadult size January 1994] Reviews 243 and plumage,perhaps a more appropriateterm is "ni- angular symbolsare a prominent feature of the map difugous."Semantics aside, I questionwhether Gas- in figure 5.3, but an explanation of what they mean ton's proposedexplanation of precocityin murrelets is lacking. can stand up to scrutiny. Although duly noting the The book contains a one-page appendix offering possiblerole of predator avoidance, his hypothesis "Census Details for Reef Island, 1989." Included are (p. 218-219) stressesthe relationship between mor- counts of burrows along 30 transects.Scant expla- tality and reproductive output as follows: nation is provided, however, and neither of two seemingly related graphics that appear earlier (figs. The estimatedannual survival of breeding Ancient 7.1 and 11.5) seemsto correspondwith the labelling Murrelets, at 75%, is lower than has been observed

systemin the appendix. The latter might as well have Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/111/1/242/5167940 by guest on 27 September 2021 for any other alcid or any other pelagicseabird .... been omitted. This is in contrast to Gaston's earlier In order to survivein the faceof this high mortality, book (with D. N. Nettleship) on Thick-billed Murres a high reproductive rate is needed . . . the Ancient in the Canadian Arctic. There, the reader finds ex- Murrelet can only achieve this reproductive output tensiveappended information, including maps,pho- by taking the chicksto the feeding area.... Hence, tographs,raw data, and noteson methods.I favor that I proposethat the need to maintain a high repro- approach in the publication of seabird population ductive rate and to reduce the vulnerability of studies, becauseit gives future observersa realistic breeders to mortality while visiting the colony, chanceof replicating the work 50 or 75 years hence, contributed to the evolution of precocity in Synth- when there may be a great need and interest in doing liboramphus. so. I assumethat publishers' preferences had some- I am surprised to see Gaston, an alumnus of Oxford thing to do with this difference. and the Edward Grey Institute, espousesuch a non- None of these few criticismsalters my opinion that Lackian view of the relation between birth and death Gastonhas produced a fine work of lastingvalue. The rates. In essence,he is saying that in murrelets the AncientMurrelet is highly readable, written as it is in reproductiverate is adjustedto compensatefor high a clear, engaging, and unaffectedstyle. The book is mortality, whereas Lack said that would never occur. attractively illustrated throughout with artwork by All organisms,according to Lack, strive to reproduce Ian Jonesand also makes effective use of black-and- as rapidly as possible,and mortality varies as a den- white photography to convey a vivid sense of what sity-dependentresponse to the reproductiverates they it is like on Reef Island. Although the intended au- achieve. Because the usual clutch of murrelets is two dience clearly includes interested nonscientists,this eggs, and the average family going to sea has 1.5 bookwill remain for many yearsthe definitive source chicks,there is in fact a greater addition to the pop- of scientific information on this previously little- ulation eachyear of extra mouthsto feed than is typ- known bird.--ScoTT A. HATCH, Alaska and Wild ical of seabirdsgenerally. The high rate of adult mor- life ResearchCenter, National Biological Survey. 1011 East tality observedmay be partly a resultof this seasonally TudorRoad, Anchorage, Alaska 99503, USA. increasedpopulation density. If, as Gaston suggests,the ancestralcondition in alcids was a clutch of more than one egg, and if it was possiblefor the murrelets to achieve a high re- productiverate by retaining the larger clutchsize and leading their young chicks to sea, then the relevant question may not be why the murrelets went this The Auk 111(1):243-245, 1994 route, but why the other alcids did not. It is not dif- ficult to envisionthe incrementalevolution of early nest-leaving.The murres and razorbill, in fact, pro- The Birds of the Philippines.--Edward C. Dick- vide examplesof the intermediatecase. The generally inson, Robert S. Kennedy, and Kenneth C. Parkes. southern (warm-water) distribution of murrelets and 1991.B.O.U. Check-list No. 12. British Ornithologists' their nocturnalitymay have predisposedthese spe- Union, Tring, Herts, United Kingdom. 507 pp., 14 cies to early nest-leaving,just as Gastonsuggests. maps, 7 color plates. ISBN 0-907446-12-4. Cloth, On the level of copy editing and presentation,the œ39.00.--Theseries of distributionalchecklists pub- bookis well produced.I noticedonly two typograph- lished by the British Ornithologists' Union has treat- ical errors and one consistentmisspelling (euphau- ed the birdlife of a diverse assortment of nations, from siidshas two i's). A statementon page39 mistakenly Libya and Cyprus to Wallacea and Sumatra. These refers to the JapaneseMurrelet where the Ancient works have been excellent, overall, and this latest Murrelet was intended, and on page 89 the author contribution,treating the Philippine avifauna is per- refers to the Queen Charlottes' only amphibian, a haps the best and most comprehensiveof their re- toad,as a reptile. Lessnitpicky is the factthat numbers gional treatments to date. I say this in spite of my in the first column of Table 4.1 do not refer to any particular fondness for the BOU works on Wallacea figure, although the legend saysthey do. Small tri- and Sumatra.