DI0MEDEIDJ2 : A LB A TR OSSES. 



1025 



much as in albatrus, yet a slight re-entrauce on furehead, and feathers on sides of under man- 

 dible salient with a slight convexity. Tail contained 3 times in length of wing. Adult and 

 young: Bill dark reddish-brown; feet black. Plumage dark chocolate-brovA'U, paler and 

 grayer, rather plumbeous, below, lightening or whitening on front uf head and at base of tail ; 

 feathers of 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 ; tail blackish, duller below, 

 with whitish shafts except at tip. A final plumage may be lighter than as described, but is 

 never extensively white, and other characters prove the validity of the species. Young with 

 dusky upper tail-coverts. Length 36.00 or less, generally not over 30.00; wing usually 19.00— 

 20.00; tail about 6.50. Bill 1.50 deep and 1.25 wide at base; chord of culmen 4.00, its 

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

 tarsus 3.70; middle or outer toe and claw 4.50; inner ditto 4.00. North Pacific coast, abun- 

 dant from Califijruia to Alaska ; Japan ; China. 



THALASSOG'ERON. (G. daXaacra, thalassa, the sea; yepcuv, geron, an old man.) Culmi- 

 nating Albatrosses. Culminicorn high and narrow throughout, at base of bill separated 

 from latericorn by a skinny interval between nasal tubes and feathers. General proportions as 

 in Diomedea proper. Albatrosses of medium size, in adult plumage with distinctly colored 

 areas ; bill in our species brightly particolored with black and yellow. Extralimital species 

 are T. T. chlororhynchus, eximiits, cautus, layardi, and salvini. 



T. culmina'tus. (Lat. having the culmen of a particular character.) Yellow-nosed 

 Albatross. Culminicorn with convex base. Adult : Above, grayish-brown, lightening to 

 ashy-gray on neck and 

 head, whitening on under 

 parts, darkening on wings 

 to the dusky bi'own of the 

 flight-feathers ; lower eye- 

 lid, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts white ; tail slate- 

 gray ; shafts of primaries 

 and tail-feathers yellow- 

 ish. Bill blackish; cul- 

 men and most of side of 

 lower mandible yellow. 

 Feet yellow. Length 

 36.00 ; wing 20.00-21 .00 ; 

 tail 8.00-9.00 ; bill along 

 culmen 4.50, its depth at 

 base 1.75; tarsus 3.25; 

 middle toe and claw nearly 

 5.00. Egg 4.20 X 2.65. 

 A handsome Albatross of medium size, inhabiting Southern seas, said by Audubon in 1839 to 

 have occurred oft' the Columbia River. He described it as Z). chlororhyncha ; but his speci- 

 men is clearly of this species, as I first pointed out in Pr. Phila. Acad. 1866, p. 183. The true 

 7). chlororhyncha of Gmolin, based on tlie Yellow-nosed Albatross of Latham, and now known 

 as tlie Green-billed Albatross, has never occurred in North America ; it is easily distiuiifnished 

 by the perpendicular orange or yellow stripe on each side of the base of the bill, and by the 

 acute base of the culminicorn. T. cuhninata was first admitted to the Key in the 3d edition, 



1887, p. 893, on the strength of Audubon's specimen ; but one was taken in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, at the mouth of the Moisic River, Aug. 20, 1885 : Auk, Jan. 1888, p. 107, and July, 



1888, p. 318. A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, p. 29, No. [83.]. 



65 



Fig. 704. — Sooty Albatros.s, much reduced. (From Teiiney, after Audubon.) 



