434 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



the shortness of its tail and by the truncated form of the base 

 of the bill. 



Its habits, manners and food doubtless resemble those of 

 Diomedea ecculans. 



The adults of both sexes have the general plumage white, 

 washed with buff on the head and neck ; the edge and centre 

 of the wing white, the remainder and the tips of the tail dark 

 brown ; bill pinky flesh-colom* ; irides brown ; legs and feet 

 bluish white ; eyelash greenish white. 



The young differ in being of a uniform chocolate-brown. 



Sp. 619. DIOMEDEA CAUTA, Gould. 



Shy Albatros. 



Diomedea cauta, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part viii. p. 177. 

 (Thalassarche) cauta, Bonap. Compt. Rend, del' Acad. Sci., 1856. 



Diomedea cauta, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii. pi. 40. 



I first saw this species of Albatros off the south coast of 

 Tasmania, and had frequent opportunities of observing it 

 during my stay in Recherche Bay, at the southern entrance 

 of D'Entrecasteaux's Channel, where I was wind-bound for 

 nearly a fortnight. Unlike other Albatroses, it was most 

 difficult to procure, for it seldom approached our ship suffi- 

 ciently near for a successful shot : I succeeded, however, 

 in shooting several examples while they were flying round 

 the Bay in which we had taken shelter. It is not usual for 

 Albatroses to approach the land or enter a secluded bay like 

 that of Recherche, and I attribute this deviation from the 

 ordinary habits to the temptation presented by the vast quan- 

 tities of fat and other remains of Whales floating about, the 

 locality being one of the principal whaling stations on the 

 coast of Tasmania ; I have no doubt likewise that it was 

 breeding on the Mewstone and other isolated rocks in the 

 neighbourhood, as the plumage of some of the specimens I 



