ZOOLOGY. 269 



Never having seen such a bird before, and all the Indians who saw it having declared 

 positively that it was new to them, the above-named gentleman had the bird skinned. The 

 specimen, however, was unfortunately afterwards destroyed. 



The fact that the bird sat on the tcaier, and upon becoming alarmed retreated to it again at 

 but a short distance, forbids the idea that it was a ^' crane;" besides, the fact that the long 

 feet and legs of one of the ardcince would have at once been recognized. Perhaps the bird 

 was an albino cormorant, yet its want of shyness or fear would seem to indicate the contrary. — S. 



Family P R C E L L AKID A E .— T he Petrels. 

 Sub-Family DIOMEDEINAE.— T h e Albatrosses. 



DIOMEDEA BRACHYURA, Temminck. 

 The Short-Tailed Albatross. 



Diomedea hrachijura, Temm. PI. col. v, about 1828. — Cassin, 111. I, 1355, 289, pi. 1. Adult. — Baird and Ijawkexce, 



Gen. Eep. Birde, 822. 

 Diomedea nigripes, Aod. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 327.— Ib. Birds Am. VII, 1842, 198.— Cass. 111. I, 1S54, 210; pi. xxxv. 

 (Young.) 

 Sp. Ch — Adult. — Head and neck white, tinged with pale yellow; primaries, tips of secondaries and tertiaries, upper edge 

 of the wing, and greater wing coverts brownish black; tail white, tipped with dark brown ; back and entire under plumage pure 

 white ; bill pale reddish yellow ; legs flesh color. 

 Length, 33 inches ; alar extent, 84 ; wing, 20 ; tail, oj ; bill, 5 ; tarsus, 34. 



The young are ashy brown, lighter on the abdomen ; for some distance around the base of the bill, and a space below the eye, 

 grayish white; bill dusky; tarsi and feet black. Length, 30. 50 inches ; extent, 85 inches. Iris brown; bill black, with a 

 purple tint ; feet black. 

 Hab. — North Pacific ; coasts of California and Oregon. 



A dusky colored albatross, which proved to be the Diomedea hrachyura, was obtained by me 

 in the spring of 1856 from Captain Diggs, of the brig Cyrus, who had taken it oil the coast of 

 Oregon a few days before. 



During a winter passage of fourteen days from the Straits of Juan de Fuca to San Francisco, 

 although I saw many birds of the genus, I saw but one individual in light colored plumage, and 

 that was near the mouth of the Columbia. All the birds I noticed seemed to belong to the 

 species which Cassiu has figured as the D. nigripes of Audubon. In a late number of Mr. 

 Cassin's work he takes the ground that the D. nigripes is merely the D. hrachyura in immature 

 plumage. If this be the case I cannot understand why the young birds preponderate so greatly, 

 as in my voyage from the Straits of Fuca I saw the single bird in light colored plumage spoken 

 of above, and a little later, in my voyage from San Francisco to Hong Kong. China, I saw but 

 one more in white plumage, as far Avest as the 145th degree of east longitude, and north of 

 latitude 12^ north, although in both passages dark colored birds were common. One of these, 

 caught about four hundred miles southwest of San Francisco, had the white spot at the base of 

 the bill very apparent, and many other birds of the species seen flj'ing in our wake were 

 similarly marked. 



I fully concur in the remarks of Mr. Peale, quoted by Casain, that the species D. chloror- 

 hynchus and D. fasca (D. /uliginosa, Gmelin) are confined to the south of the equator, and 

 think, therefore, that they should both be stricken from tlie northwest fauna. It is true that 

 specimens of both species brought home by Dr. Townsend are said to have been obtained froni 



