438 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



that he saw it flying about Rottnest Island on the western 

 coast. 



In its flight and general economy it greatly resembles the 

 next species, with which it is often in company. 



Spot before and line above the eye washed with grey ; head, 

 neck, all the under surface, rump, upper tail-coverts and 

 under surface of the wing snow-white; back and wings 

 brownish black ; tail brownish slate-colour, with white shafts; 

 culmen from near the base to the point bright orange-yellow ; 

 remainder of the bill black ; irides greyish brown ; feet bluish 

 white. 



Sp. 622. DIOMEDEA MELANOPHRYS, Temm. 

 Black-eyebrowed Albatros. 



Diomedea melanophrys, Temm. PI. Col. 456. 



[Thalassarche) melanophrys, Bonap. Compt. Rend, de I'Acad. 



Sci., 1856. 



Diomedea melanophrys, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vii. 

 pi. 43. 



The Diomedea melanophri/s may be regarded as the most com- 

 mon species of Albatros inhabiting the southern ocean, and, 

 from its gregarious habits and very familiar disposition, it is 

 known to every voyager who has rounded either of the Capes. 

 I have never myself been at sea many days between the 35tli 

 and 55tli degrees of south latitude without recognizing it, and 

 it appeared to me to be equally numerous in the Atlantic as 

 in the Pacific. On my passage to Australia, numerous indi- 

 viduals followed our vessel for hundreds of miles as we pro- 

 ceeded eastward, and I have no doubt that in the course of 

 their peregrination they frequently make the circuit of the 

 globe ; a not unnatural conclusion, when we reflect upon the 

 great povv'ers of flight given to all the members of the present 

 genus, and that their natural food is as abundant at one part 

 as at another. It was nowhere more numerous than off" the 



