( 193 ) 



breast of the other was grej', and the head black. Whether they were the sexes of 

 one species, or two distinct ones, I am unable to decide." 



In 1879 Wolf writes (translated, cf. Ridgway) ; " I would mention as a cnrions 

 zoological fact that the albatross of Hood Island, and only on that island, occnrs in 

 such abundance, that the entire camp of Orchilla collectors (more than sixty men) 

 lived for a mouth chiefly upon its eggs, although each female lays but one egg. It 

 is evidently the widespread albatross from the Cape of Good Hope (J), exulans), 

 which is also very abundant about Cape Horn." 



Harris' party was specially instructed to look out for the albatrosses, and they 

 found a large breeding colony on Hood Island, and many forsaken eggs in the latter 

 week of October. It is somewhat strange that so large a bird with such a power of 

 flight has never beeu got elsewhere in the archipelago, although the type was 

 taken off the Peruvian coast. It seems to breed only on Hood Island. All the 

 specimens received from there arc 1). irrorata, Salv. We do not think that two 

 species are likely to breed on the Galapagos Islands. Dr. Habel's descriptions 

 may possibly or partly refer to young birds, for neither of them describes the adult 

 1). irrorata. Mr. Ridgway suggests that the one with the " dark blackish breast 

 and a white band crossing the head " might have been D. nigripes And., but the 

 home of that species is so far away from the Galapagos Islands, that we think it is 

 more probable that the bird described by Habel and a black bird with white head 

 seen by the Harris party on Indefatigable, are either the D. irrorata in its unknown 

 juvenile plumage, or an unknown species. Young individuals in the first jilnmage 

 were seen, but unfortunately not collected. Undetermined albatrosses were also 

 observed near Duncan and Albemarle. 



This species in breeding plumage agrees in general with Salvin's description. 

 The neck is white, the forehead also white; but the crown, from between the eyes, 

 and the hind neck, are strongly washed with bufty yellow, not only " slightly 

 tinged." The back and wings are deep sooty brown, almost black, the primaries 

 paler towards the base of the inner webs, the shafts of all of them light straw- 

 yellow. The dark grey and white mottling is much coarser on the vent and under 

 tail-coverts, in sharp contrast to the almost uniform dark grey lower abdomen and 

 flanks. It is gradually lost on the foreneck. " The iris is brown, the bill yellow, the 

 tarsi and feet lead-colour, lead-blue, or greenish lead-colour." The total length (as 

 taken in the flesh by the collectors) is about 30 — 4i) in., extent 93 — 99 in. , The bill, 

 measured in a straight line from base to tip, along the mandible, is 126 — 140 mm. 

 long, the tarsus 85 — lOO, wing 535 — 560 mm. Tha female is like the male, and not 

 much smaller. The plate in Cat. B. Brit. Mus. gives a very wrong idea, being too 

 brown above, and the bill and feet being coloured with a fleshy pink tint, although 

 on p. 445 the bill is described as yellowish, the feet as dark. 



The albatross was so plentiful on Hood Island that the collectors computed 

 their number at several thousands. Antea, p. 125, in the diary, some notes on the 

 habits of this bird are given. The eggs vary in shape from elliptical ovate to 

 elliptical oval and even to perfectly oval (see Ridgway's Nomeucl. Col. PI. XVI.). 

 They are of a dead white colour and entirely without gloss, and of the same structure 

 as other albatrosses' eggs. The majority are without spots, but some show more or 

 less small underlying patches of a pale mauve colour, generally confined to the 

 thick end, but in one of our thirty-one specimens spread all over the surface. They 

 measure 1 17-5 by 70, 107 by 045, 112 by 09, 90-5 by 72, 103-5 by 72, 105 by 60, 

 100 by 60 mm., and so on. 



