PRIOCELLA.—DIOMEDEA. 437 
Hab. Mzxtco, Mazatlan *.—Snas or tue Sournern Hemispuere 3, northward along the 
Pacific Coast of North America to Washington Territory 3 4, 
This Petrel is easily recognized by its large size and silvery-grey plumage, resembling 
that of the Northern Fulmar (Fudmarus gracilis). 
The species is found in the Cape seas and also in the Antarctic pack-ice, where 
Hanson procured several specimens which were swimming about in search of food. It 
is believed to breed in Kerguelen, but the eggs have not yet been obtained. 
Fam. DIOMEDEIDA. 
The characters for the determination of the Albatrosses as distinct from other Petrels 
are thus given by Salvin in the ‘ Catalogue of Birds’:—Nostrils lateral, separated by the 
wide culmen, each in a separate horny sheath opening forwards; margin of the sternum 
uneven, the sternum itself short compared with its width; no pterygoid processes ; 
manubrium of furcula very short; coracoids short, very wide at the base and widely 
divergent ; first primary the longest. 
The Albatrosses are distributed over the entire Southern Hemisphere, retiring to 
rocky islands to nest. In the Pacific they extend as far north as Japan and the 
Hawaiian Islands. Only three genera are known—Diomedea, Thalassogeron, and 
Phebetria, and a single species of two of them has occurred within our limits. 
DIOMEDEA. 
Diomedea, Linn, Syst. Nat. i. p. 214 (1766); Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxv. p- 440 (1896). 
The typical Albatrosses have no such groove along the sides of the culmenas is found 
in the Sooty Albatross (Phebetria fuliginosa), and the tail is short and rounded. The 
bill is, as it were, divided into sections or horny layers, and thus in Diomedea the 
base of the ‘‘culminicorn,” or upper sheath, is wide, joining the proximal end of the 
dorsal edge of the “latericorn,” or lateral plate of the culmen. 
The species are nine in number, and are principally inhabitants of the Southern 
Hemisphere, though they are seen occasionally north of the Equator. Two species, 
D. nigripes and D. albatrus, are inhabitants of the Northern Pacific, and the former 
has been noticed near the Revillagigedo Islands. . 
1. Diomedea nigripes. 
Diomedea nigripes, Audubon, Orn. Biogr. v. p. 827; Salv. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 445?; 
Anthony, Auk, xv. p. 817°; Oates, Cat. Eggs Brit. Mus. i. p. 163‘. 
Fuliginoso-brunnea, facie laterali et corpore subtus toto pallidioribus, magis cinerascentibus ; pileo albicanti- 
brunneo variegato, plumis pallidius marginatis; regione anteoculari nigricante ; fronte basali, loris, et genis 
anticis cinerascenti-albis, mento clariore cinereo ; subalaribus et axillaribus saturate brunneis: rostro 
