240 



SNODGRASS AND HELLER 



from a boat. The nest was in all cases a scant affair, consisting of a 

 few twigs laid in the bottom of the cavity. The eggs are slightly 

 elongate-ovate. The color is creamy white, marked with a few small 

 light and dark blotches of brown, most numerous about the large end ; 

 one egg having the rest of the surface almost plain. Two specimens 

 measure: 50 x 34 and 48 x 35. We found them nesting on James 

 Island in April. 



Family DIOMEDEID^. 



Genus Diomedea Linnaeus. 

 Diomedea Linnaeus, Syst. Nat,, ed. x, i, p. 132, 1758. . 



Range. — Entire Pacific Ocean and southern seas in general. Gala- 

 pagos Archipelago. 



8. DIOMEDEA IRRORATA Salvin. 



Diomedea extilansWo\.T, Ein Besuch auf den Galapagos Inseln, p. 13, 1879. 

 Two kinds of Albatrosses Habel, Trans. Zool. See. Lend., ix, p. 458, 1876. 

 Diomedea exulans and D. nigripes Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix, 



p. 646, 1896. 

 Diomedea irrorata Salvin, Proc. Zool. See. Lend., p. 430, 1883 (Callao, 

 Peru) ; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxv, p. 445, pi. 8, 1896. — Rothschild, 

 Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, vii, p. 51, 1898. — Rothschild and Hartert, 

 '^ Novit. Zool., VI, p. 192, 1899. 



Range. — Galapagos Archipelago and coast of Peru. The home 

 of this species appears to be restricted to the eastern end of Hood 

 Island. Albatrosses have long been known to exist at the Galapagos 

 Islands, but the specimens brought back by the Harris expedition in 

 1898 were the first to be certainly identified. They were determined 

 by Rothschild and Hartert to be Diomedea irrorata., a species de- 

 scribed in 1883 by Salvin from a specimen taken at Callao, Peru, 

 evidently a wanderer from the Galapagos, for no others have been 

 taken on the mainland. 



Albatrosses are frequently to be seen among the islands of the archi- 

 pelago, but they breed only at the eastern end of Hood Island. There 

 is here a large rookery which has long been known to whalers and 

 made to supply eggs for eating. At the time of our visit to Hood 

 Island in May the albatrosses were nesting. The nests were scattered 

 about on the ground in open places among the bushes, averaging 

 about twenty-five feet apart. A few of the birds were in pairs, 

 apparently not yet nesting ; but most of them were sitting on one &^%, 

 each. When disturbed they attempted to frighten away the intruder 

 by loudly snapping the beak. 



We have seven eggs taken in May. They are somewhat elongate- 



