FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND ALASKA PENINSULA 39 



mounds great number of their [D. albatrus] bones, but never 

 any of D. nigripes." 



Here, we have a parallel with the situation in the Aleutians. 

 In both areas (California and the Aleutian district), only the 

 short-tailed albatross occurs in middens, except for some over- 

 lapping of the two species at Kodiak. Is it possible that in early 

 times D. albat?~us was the species that came closer to land and 

 was therefore more available? Apparently, in the north, too, 

 these two species had "divided the territory between them." 



We need to know more about the whitish birds being seen today 

 in the Aleutian district. Are some of these birds the remnants 

 of the vanishing short-tailed albatross, or are they all Laysan 

 albatrosses? If they are the latter, will that species eventually 

 take over the range of albatrus? 



Turner, in writing of the short-tailed albatross, mentions two 

 birds that were killed at Attu in the latter part of March, 1881. 

 He claimed that "this species passes the winter in this locality 

 and may be found, during very severe weather, about the 

 western end of Attu." And he believed that it nested somewhere 

 in that region, which also was the belief of the Attu chief at the 

 time of our visit there. 



Nelson mentions a specimen, obtained by Dr. Bean, that had a 

 wing spread of 88 inches. 



Diomedea immutabilis: Laysan Albatross 



We had not suspected that this bird occupied the Aleutian 

 district until a specimen, collected near Ulak island, July 31, 1937, 

 eventually proved to be of this species. On the field trip, we had 

 assumed this specimen to be D. albatrus, and on the basis of that 

 assumption we had recorded our observations on white albatrosses 

 as albatrus. However, because Oliver Austin has pointed out the 

 extreme scarcity of specimens ©r certain records of the short- 

 tailed albatross in recent years, and suggests its probable extinc- 

 tion, there must remain doubt about the records on our expedition. 

 This, of course, throws much doubt on the possible existence of 

 albatrus in the Aleutians today, but I shall record our observations 

 for what they are worth, keeping in mind that the species ob- 

 served was in doubt in each instance. 



In these seasons of field work, we occasionally saw white- 

 colored albatrosses throughout the Aleutian islands. In 1936, we 

 saw one between Seguam and Chagulak Islands on June 21. On 

 July 31 we saw another sitting on the water between Buldir and 



