PROCELLARIIDJE : DIOMEDEIN^ : ALBATROSSES. 



775 



than half the wing (in one species about one-third the wing). Coloration variegated with 

 white and black, or unifonnly fuliginous. Of largest size in the subfamily. D. exulans is 

 type of tliis group ; our two species fall in a subgenus Phoebastria. 



Analysis of Species. 



Adult white, with dark wings and tail ; bill and feet light hrachyura 810 



Adult fuliginous ; bill and feet dark nigripes 811 



aiO. D. brachyu'ra. (Gr. /Spa^vf, 6»'ac/i2<s, short ; oupa, owra, tail.) Short-tailed Albatross. 

 Bill 5.00 or 6.00 inches long, with moderately concave culmen and prominent hook. Frontal 

 featliers forming almost no reiiutrance on culmen, running nearly straight around whole base 

 of upper mandible, and extending scarcely farther on sides of under mandible, with hardly 

 any convexity. Tail very short, contained rather more than 3 times in length of wing. 

 Total length about 3.00 feet, with spread of about 7.00 feet; wing 20.00 inches; tail 5.50- 

 6.00 inches; tarsus nearly 4.00 inches. Adult plumage white, the head and neck usu- 

 ally washed with shiniug rusty-yellow ; wings and tail dark or blackish, with a wholly 

 indeterminate amount of white on the coverts and inner quills — sometimes nearly all the 

 wing-coverts white excepting a line along the border of the fore-ann — sometimes the white 

 restricted to a small space at the elbow. Bill pale reddish-yellow, drying pale dingy- 

 yellowish ; feet flesh-color. Young dark-colored, resembling nigripes, but easily distinguished. 

 Pacific Ocean at large ; abundant off our coast. This albatross drojis a single egg on the 

 ground, nearly equal-ended, white, 4.20 X 2.60 ; both sexes incubate. 

 811. D. ni'gripes. (Lat. nigripes, black-footed.) Black-footed Albatross. Bill about 

 4.00 (never 5.00) inches long, extremely stout, with the culmen almost perfectly straight 

 to the hook, which is comparatively small and weak, scarcely rising above level of the culmen. 



The horny piece forming 

 the culmen very broad, 

 especially at base, where 

 it widens and descends to 

 overlap the lateral piece. 

 Outline of feathers much 

 as in hrachyura, yet a 

 slight reentrance on fore- 

 head, and feathers on sides 

 of under mandible salient 

 with a slight convexity. 

 Commissure about straight 

 to the hook. Bill about 

 one-third longer than head, 

 slightly longer than tarsus, 

 equal to middle toe with- 

 out claw; 1.50 deep and 

 1.25 wide at base. Tail 

 contained 3 tiines in the 



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^^ 



Fig. 



Sooty Albatross, mnch reduced. (From Tenney, after Audubon.) 



wing. Bill dark-colored ; feet black. Plumage dark chocolate-brown, paler and grayer, 

 rather plumbeous, below, lightening or whitening on head ; feathers of the upper parts with 

 paler edges, as if faded ; spot before eye and streak over eye quite black. Primaries black, 

 duller on inner webs, with yellow shafts to near the end ; tail blackish, duller below, with 

 whitish shafts except at tip. A final plumage may be lighter than as described, but is never 

 white, and other characters prove the validity of the species. Chord of culmen 4.00, its curve 

 4.60 ; distance from feathers on side of upper mandible to tip 3.50; ditto lower mandible 3.20 ; 



