230 Transactions. — Zoology/. 



Akt. XXVIJI. — On the Wandcriiuj Albaiws ; witli an Exhi- 

 bition of Specimens, and tiic Determination of a New 

 Species (Diomedea regia). 



By Siu Walter L. Bullek, K.C.M.G., F.E.S. 



[Read before the ^^'cUii^iQto}t I'Jdlosophical Society, 13th February, 



1891.] 



As far back as the 13tli February, 1885, I exhibited, at one of 

 the meetings of this Society, a series of specimens of the so- 

 called Wandering Albatros, and expressed my belief that there 

 ■svere two species confounded under the common name of 

 Diomedea exulans, one of them being highly variable in 

 plumage, and the other distinguishable by its larger size and 

 by the constancy of its white head and neck (see Trans. N.Z, 

 Inst., vol. xvii., p. 450). But, although that was the con- 

 viction on my mind, I did not feel justified in setting up the 

 new species and giving it a distinctive name till I could pro- 

 duce incontestable evidence of its existence. 



I have recently had an opportunity of examining sixteen 

 beautiful examples, of both sexes and of all ages, and I have 

 no hesitation now in giNing this new species the rank to which 

 it is entitled. It is undoubtedly the noblest member of this, 

 group, both as to size and beauty, and I have therefore named 

 it Diomedea regia. Of the sixteen examples mentioned above, 

 two (an adult female and a full-grown fledgling) came from 

 Campbell Island, one was brought alive from the Auckland. 

 Islands, and the remaining thirteen (most of which were 

 female birds) were taken by fishermen ofl the New Zealand 

 coast, in the vicinity of Port Chalmers. 



In my " Birds of New Zealand " (second edition) I treated 

 this bird as the mature condition of Diomedea exulans ; but 

 that I still had my doubts on the subject will appear from the 

 following paragraph on 'p-a.ge 192 (vol. ii.) : " We cannot sup- 

 pose that tlie Albatros is first pure-white, then dark-brown, 

 and, after passing through several intermediate states, pure- 

 white again in extreme old age. Nor would it be altogether 

 safe, from the materials at present before us, to construct a 

 new species. I am inclined rather to account for the differ- 

 ences I have mentioned on the supposition of the existence 

 of dimorphic phases of plumage, as in some other oceanic 

 birds." 



In the plate facing page 188 I have given the two forms, 

 the swimming figure representing the fully adult condition of 

 Diomedea exulans, and the standing one being the bird now 

 described as new, which is thus referred to in the text 



