ROYAL ALBATROSS. 57 
Immature, with down still adhering —Agrees in detail with the preceding ; it 
has fewer white markings on the wing, and the cross-bars on rump and lower back 
are more pronounced, with longer, black ends to the scapulars ; these seem the 
only noticeable differences ; the tail is just as white, and the bill is more dully 
coloured. 
Nestling, just commencing to lose down.—Coloration exactly the same ; bill dark 
coloured, but tail pure white. 
Nestling—Covered with pure white down, thick and woolly in appearance. 
Nest.—Apparently like that of D. e. rothschildv. 
Egg—White. Dimensions 126 by 79.5 mm. 
Breeding-season Commence to lay at the end of December. 
Distribution and forms—East Australian and New Zealand seas ; single speci- 
mens also known from east and west coasts of South America. From, the former 
localities two subspecies have been separated: D. e. epomophora Lesson, breeding 
at Campbell Island ; and D. e. mecormicki Mathews, from Enderby Island, Auckland 
Group, with the scapulars cross-barred, only the longer ones having black tips ; the 
olecranal patch larger, and wing coloration lighter. Murphy (Bull. Amer. Mus. 
Nat. Hist., Vol. XXXVII., p. 861, Dec. 10th, 1917) has founded a new subgenus 
Rhothonia, on a new species Diomedea sanfordi, killed at sea, forty miles off Corral, 
Chile. This is obviously a form of the present species, agreeing in all details of 
structure. We do not understand Murphy’s measurements, otherwise we should 
conclude his bird was less than the typical form, but he does state that ‘* sanford: 
shows no trace of the white olecranal patch.” 
OrpER FREGATI. 
The order covers only one family with a few species of large seabirds with long 
hooked bills, nostrils not obvious, very long wings, very long forked tails and small 
webbed feet. They have comparatively very slight bodies and the male has a 
gular pouch which is capable of large distension in the breeding-season. The peculiar 
feet are diagnostic, the tarsus being unique in character. The distribution is 
purely tropical throughout all oceans, the birds breeding gregariously on isolated 
islands. 
This peculiarly well-defined order has been merged by anatomists with the 
Steganopodes on account of the absurdly trivial superficial feature of the inter- 
webbing of all four toes. 
Osteologically, the palate is termed desmognathous but it is a pseudo-desmog- 
nathism which has puzzled osteologists, really only a simple development from 
the schizognathous form, and the vomer is fused posteriorly with the palatines only 
in the adult. The nasals are holorhinal and there are no basipterygoid processes ; 
the lachrymal is large with a large descending process which reaches the jugal bar 
and an uncinate bone which reaches the palatine. The quadrate is also peculiar. 
The cervical vertebre are twelve or thirteen and opisthoccelous ; the sternum 
differs from that of the succeeding in its greater depth posteriorly and the furcula 
is anchylosed with the acrocoracoid and the carina sterni while the pelvis differs 
and is similar to that of some Procellariz, as is also the skull. The tarsal bones 
are more or less separated, in this respect recalling those of the Impennes alone. 
Both carotids are present and the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial but flattened from 
before backwards. The digestive system is periccelous and orthoccelous and shows 
little peculiarity, the ceca being small. The leg muscles are restricted to the 
femoro-caudal and the ambiens, the others missing ; the biceps slip is also absent 
from the wing muscles and,as would be anticipated, the biceps itself is peculiarly 
formed. The oil gland is present and tufted, a minute aftershaft is present and the 
wing is aquincubital. The pterylosis is very uniform and the down is very thick. 
