m 



nests on the ground under low bushes. They merely scoop a hole in the 

 ground for the egg. The eggs are large, rotund-elliptical, with a smooth, 

 white, and translucent shell. They are such close setters that nothing 

 could induce them to leave their eggs voluntarily. When we removed 

 them from their nests they instantly returned to their duty on being 

 released. 



DIOMEDEA CULMINATA, Gould [No. 67368]. . 



Diomedea cholorhynchos, of Audubon's Works. 



Diomedea culminata, Gould, Ann. & Mag. N. H., 1844, xiii, 361.— Coues, Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Phila., 1866, 183 (critical). 



Locality : at sea, off Cape Horn. 



DIOMEDEA NIGKIPES, Aud. [Nos. 67362, 67363, 67364, 67365]. 



Diomedea nigripes, AuD., Orn. Biog., v, 1839, 327.— Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 



1866, 178 (critical). 

 Diomedea brachjurajtiv., Cassix, Illust. B. Cal. & Tex., 1853, 291. 



Diomedea gihhosa, Gould, Ann. &, Mag. N. H., 1844, xiii, 361. — Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 • Sci. Pbila., 1866, 180. 



Locality : North Pacific Ocean. Captured at sea while on the passage 

 between Honolulu and San Francisco. The series is a good one to illus- 

 trate the species in nearly all its stages of plumage, and notably that 

 described by Gould as D. gibhosa, which is nothing more than the adult 

 plumage of nigripes. Dr. Coues, in his excellent " Critical Eeview of 

 the Family Procellaridse", alludes to this as the probable conclusion to 

 be arrived at upon a more thorough investigation of the species. We 

 have first presented to us the typical nigripes, with its uniformly dusky 

 plumage. The white first makes its appearance on the basal portions 

 of the upper and under tail-coverts ; it increases in quantity until 

 there is but a narrow rim of brown left at the apices of the feathers. In 

 older specimens', the brown entirely disappears, and the whole of the 

 crissum and upper coverts are pure white. We then find the white 

 traveling upward and spreading itself over the abdomen. In those 

 specimens that have the greatest amount of white on the under sur- 

 face of the body, we find a widening area of the same color on the top 

 of the head, spreading backward from the narrow rim that originally 

 surrounded the base of the bill. 



