SEA-BIRDS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SEA-BIRDS OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC. By James Fisher and R.M. Lockley. New Naturalist No. 28.

(1954) 1954 1st US edition. 8vo (152 x 223mm). Ppxvi,320. B/w photograph plates, b/w line illustrations, maps and bibliography, erata slip tipped in to contents page. Cursive gilt titles to turquoise buckram, cursive gilt titles to spine.

This is the US first edition of 1954. There is no mention of the New Naturalists, or of this book being part of a series. There "are only about 250 true sea-birds in the world [and these include] some of the most numerous and well-adapted of living species, ranging from the magnificent albatrosses, with their powers of sail-planing, to the curious diving petrels; from the penguins to the auks; from the cormorants to the gulls and terns. ...[In the North Atlantic] about half the world's sea-bird species have been seen at one time or another." Chapters include: The North Atlantic Ocean - its structure and its sea-birds; Evolution and the North Atlantic sea-birds; Sea-bird numbers and man; What controls the numbers of sea-birds?; Sea-bird movements; Navigation by sea-birds; Social and sexual behaviour; The tubenoses; The pelicans; The skuas; The gulls; Terns and skimmers; The auks; List of sea-birds of the North Atlantic and their distribution. A readable and authoritative work, of great practical use.