Academic literature on the topic 'North Island brown kiwi'

Possibly the most successful urban birds, pigeons and doves in the Order Columbiformes are one of the most easily recognised groups. They are an ancient and very successful group with an almost worldwide distribution and are most strongly represented in tropical and subtropical regions, including Australia. In most species simple plumage patterns feature mainly grey and brown with black, white or dull reddish markings, but the highly colourful fruit-doves include some of the most beautiful of all birds.
 From dense rainforests of north Queensland, where brilliantly plumaged Superb Fruit-D

Islands are landmarks for sea birds, whether for orientation, as resting points during foraging and migration trips, or most importantly as nesting sites. This is due to the isolation that islands offer, rendering them free of many of the continental predators. If, additionally, islands are located in the midst of highly productive waters, they provide sea birds with abundant food, which is particularly valuable during the nesting season. This is the case in the northern Sea of Cortes. Not surprisingly, we find that the islands of this region are nesting sites for more than 90% of the world’s populations of Heermann’s Gulls (Larus heermanni) and Elegant Terns (Sterna elegans), and for about 90% of the global populations of the Least Storm-petrel (Oceanodroma microsoma), the Craven’s Murrelet (Synthliboramphus craveri), and the Yellow- footed Gull (Lams livens). The midriff island area of the Gulf of California also shelters approximately 70% of the world’s Black Storm-petrel (O. melania) and, at the subspecific level, provides breeding grounds for about 50% of the California Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis californicus), 50% of the Blue-footed Boobies (Sula nebouxii nebouxii), and 40% of the Brown Boobies (S. leucogaster brewsteri). A combination of characteristics in one particular island, Rasa, has made it a natural breeding sanctuary for Heermann’s Gulls. Besides the two traits mentioned above (lack of land predators and high marine productivity), these characteristics include (1) its characteristic flat topography from which it derives its name (rasa means “flat” in Spanish), and (2) its sparse vegetation cover, resulting from the extensive coverage of the island with guano that hinders vegetation growth. The Heermann’s Gull is the only North American representative of the group of White-hooded Gulls (Anderson 1983; Moynihan 1959; Storer 1971). The only other member of this group of gulls and hence its closest relative is the Grey Gull (Lams modestus), which inhabits the Pacific coast of South America along Chile and Peru and breeds inland in the Atacama Desert some 50-100 km away from the coast (Howell et al. 1974; Howell 1978).

This chapter details how the author began to watch over wild birds along the north Florida coast. The author was a volunteer steward, and her first assignment was on a bit of sand, a spoil island south of the Apalachicola bridge. There, the author was to keep track of nesting activity by least terns, black skimmers, certain small plovers, or American oystercatchers. The island had historically hosted a seasonal congregation of 700 nesting pairs of brown pelicans. But after a large quantity of spoil was dredged from the river channel and heaped onto the island one winter, the pelicans abandoned the site and had never returned. Another year, more than 200 least terns and a handful of gull-billed terns had nested on the fresh spoil. It was not clear whether pelicans would return, or the terns — or neither.

Given Theirhistory Of Racial Subordination, how have black people gained any protection against the multifaceted forms of discrimination that threaten their well-being and undermine their rights? The answer can be stated simply: Black rights are recognized and protected when and only so long as policymakers perceive that such advances will further interests that are their primary concern. Throughout the history of civil rights policies, even the most serious injustices suffered by blacks, including slavery, segregation, and patterns of murderous violence, have been insufficient, standing alone, to gain real relief from any branch of government. Rather, relief from racial discrimination has come only when policymakers recognize that such relief will provide a clear benefit for the nation or portions of the populace. While nowhere mentioned in the Supreme Court’s Brown opinion, a major motivation for outlawing racial segregation in 1954, as opposed to the many failed opportunities in the past, was the major boost that this decision provided in our competition with communist governments abroad and the campaign to uproot subver­sive elements at home. This fortuity continues a long history of similar coincidences motivating the advancement or sacrifice of black interests. Three major examples of what I call interest-convergence covenants involve the abolition of slavery in the northern states, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil War amendments to the Constitution. Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and the divergent responses of blacks and whites to his action, were foreshad­owed by abolition policies in the northern states a half-century earlier. In the northern states, slavery was abolished by constitutional provi­sion in Vermont (1777), Ohio (1802), Illinois (1818), and Indiana (1816); by a judicial decision in Massachusetts (1783); by constitutional interpretation in New Hampshire (1857); and by gradual abolition acts in Pennsylvania (1780), Rhode Island (1784), Connecticut (1784 and 1797), New York (1799 and 1827), and New Jersey (1804). In varying degrees, abolition in the North was the result of several factors: idealism stemming from the Revolution with its “rights of man” ideology; the lesser dependence of the northern economy on a large labor force; the North’s relatively small investment in slaves combined with the great hostility of the white laboring class to the competition of slaves; the fear of slave revolts; and a general belief that there was no place for “inferior” blacks in the new societies.