LIGHT-MANTLED SOOTY ALBATROSS. 49 
Phebetria fusca campbelli Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. II., pt. m1, p. 304, Sept. 20th, 1912: 
Australian Seas. 
DistriButTion.—Southern Australian Seas. One specimen from Hobson’s Bay preserved 
in Melbourne Museum. 
Adult—General colour above and below sooty-brown, slightly darker on the top 
of the head ; blackish on the lores and above and behind the eyes ; wings and tail 
blackish-brown ; shafts of the tail-feathers and primaries straw coloured. Short 
feathers round the eye, interrupted in front, white ; bill black, the groove on the 
lower mandible long and deep, and filled with a yellow skin. Total length 790 mm. ; 
culmen (exp.) 115, wing 482, tail 250, tarsus 73. 
Immature, Nest, Egg, and Breeding-season—Unknown. 
Distribution and forms.—Not at all well known, found at sea in the southern 
Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and about southern Australian seas. Two forms named : 
P. f. fusca (Hilsenberg) from the former and P. f. campbelli Mathews from the latter, 
differing notably in its smaller size throughout. Nichols and Murphy contrasted 
Mathews’s measurements with their own; but we would point out that their 
method of measuring is unknown to us and we cannot reconcile any of their figures 
with our own data. 
Phebetria palpebrata. -LIGHT-MANTLED SOOTY ALBATROSS. 
Diomedea palpebrata Forster, Mém. Math. Phys. (Paris), Vol. X., p. 571, 1785: ‘47° South 
Lat.” = 64°S. 38°E., z.e., due south of Prince Edward and Marion Islands. 
Mathews, Vol. II., pt. 3, pl. 101, Sept. 20th, 1912. 
Phebetria palpebrata hwitoni Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. II., pt. 3, p 297, Sept. 20th, 1912 : 
New Zealand Seas. 
DisTRIBUTION.—?? South Australian Seas. Records by sight, but no skins, 
Adult male—Mantle pale ash-grey, with lighter edges to some of the feathers ; 
wings, scapulars, and upper tail-coverts dark greyish-brown; primary-quills 
blackish-brown on the outer webs and at the tips, with white shafts for the greater 
part of their length, becoming black at the tips, the inner webs somewhat paler ; 
tail blackish-brown, the shafts white ; head, sides of face and throat sooty-black ; 
under-surface ashy-brown, somewhat darker on the Jower throat and under tail- 
coverts ; axillaries slightly darker than the under-surface of the body; under 
wing-coverts pale brown with dark shaft-lines; the short feathers encircling the 
eye have the frontal portion black, and the hinder part white ; bill black, groove 
on mandible blue ; iris hazel ; tarsi and feet pink. Total length 820 mm.; culmen 
114, wing 525, tail 228, tarsus 78. 
Adult female —Similar to the adult male. 
Nestling—Covered entirely with pale ashy-grey down. 
Nest.—Placed in crevices in the rock. 
Egg.—Clutch, one ; whitish, round the larger end covered with very tiny spots 
of reddish which merge together at the apex ; axis 103 mm., diameter 66. (Collected 
November 4th, 1894.) 
Breeding-season.—November to February. (Macquarie and Campbell Islands.) 
Distribution and forms.—Round the Sub-antarctic Circle. Nichols and Murphy 
(Auk, Vol. XXXTI., p. 526, Oct. 1914) have recently reviewed these birds, admitting 
four forms: P. p. palpebrata (Forster) from Kerguelen Island, and probably also 
Crozets, Prince Edward Island, etc.; P. p. huttoni Mathews, from Australian seas 
and New Zealand, breeding on the New Zealand Sub-antarctic Islands, paler than 
preceding, and smaller in all measurements than next; P. p. antarctica Mathews 
from South Georgia, with larger heavier bill, and paler than last named ; and 
P. p auduboni Nichols and Murphy from west coast. of America, on account of 
E 
