266 ORNITHOLOGY OF THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



On the second voyage four (two males and two females) were captured in the Weddell 

 Sea, or its confines, on February 25th and 26th, 1904, in 64 29' (35 29' W.) and 

 65 59' S. (33 06' W.). 



This species does not appear to have come under the notice of other recent Antarctic 

 explorers, but a species of Prion is recorded by Vanhoffen (t.c.) as having occurred off 

 Wilhelm Laud, or just without the Antarctic Circle, on March 18th, 1903, and one was 

 also noticed between that part of the Antarctic Continent and Kerguelen Island where 

 P. desolatus is known to breed. 



The bill and feet of the specimens secured by the Scottish Expedition are described 

 as being bluish grey, and the iris as brown. 



P/ioebetria cornicoides Hutton. 

 Plwebetriafuliginosa Cat. B., xxv. p. 453; Chun, i.e., pp. 167, 220; Voij. of "Scotia," pp. 181, 232. 



It is a matter for surprise that two such genuinely distinct species as P. cornicoides 

 and P. fuliginosa should have collectively passed for a considerable number of years 

 under the name of the Sooty Albatros. The Scotia collection of birds has been the 

 means of calling attention to the claims of Captain Hutton's so-called variety, described 

 in 1867, to full specific rank. Now there remains the important but at present almost 

 impossible task of unravelling the tangled skein involved in defining the geographical 

 distribution of the two species. Here the Scotia collections again lend a helping hand, 

 for they enable me to say that all the birds obtained and seen in the far south belonged 

 to Hutton's species, and that it was only when the waters of the South Atlantic were 

 approached that QmeYm's fuliginosa appeared upon the scene. 



Specimens of both birds were collected, and the species under consideration was the 

 only one obtained in the Antarctic Ocean, where it was observed as far south as 

 69 46' S. 



During the first Antarctic voyage, in 1903, this bird was noticed on eight occasions 

 between February 14th and March 21st, in latitudes varying from 59 33' to 69 46' S., 

 and in longitudes from 20 58' to 27 32' W. ; and on the second voyage, in 1904, it 

 was logged for south of 60 on ten days between February 23rd and April 1st, in latitudes 

 ranging from 60 30' to 67 S., and longitudes between 10 42' and 41 55' W. On 

 February 25th, when in 64 29' S. and 35 29' W., six individuals were sailing around 

 the Scotia at the same time. North of 60 it was encountered as far as Gough Island 

 (40 19' S.), as related below (Section IX., p. 289). 



Previously to the researches of the Scotia Expedition, this albatros had not been 

 recorded within the Antarctic Circle, though Ross (t.c., p. 359) observed a "Sooty 

 Albatros" in the Weddell Sea in 67 06' S. and 8 35' W. on March 1st, 1843, which 

 most probably was of this species. 



No specimen of P. fuliginosa was obtained or observed by the Expedition beyond 

 58 S., though it is certain that this albatros does attain to a higher degree of southern 



