DIOMEDEA FULIGINOSA. OEE: 
their eggs are similar. Mr. Rickard has observed it off Port 
Elizabeth and East London. 
Wings, back, and tail, sooty black-brown; the shafts of the 
latter white ; the rump and the rest of the plumage, pure white, 
with the faintest tinge of black for an eyebrow; bill black, with 
a broad yellow stripe commencing about 4’” of an inch from the 
feathers, and extending along the ridge of the upper mandible to 
the tip, which is reddish ; lower mandible black, with the exception 
of the extreme tip, which is livid. Length, 31’; wing, 19’’; 
teem Wa 
Fig. Temm. Pl. Col. 468. 
754. DioMEDEA CULMINATA. Culminated Albatross. 
We obtained a single specimon of this Albatross off the south 
coast, while cruising in H.M.S. “Castor,” and for some time 
confounded it with the preceding, with which it was consorting, and 
agreeing perfectly in habits. We have never before heard of this 
species so far north. On the coasts of Australia it is a common 
species. 
Upper part of back, pale sooty black; head and neck lighter ; 
wing much darker, and tinged with brown; eyebrow, above dark, 
like the back, below white; under parts, from the base of the neck, 
pure white. Length, 30"; wing, 19”; tail, 11”. 
Fig. Gould, B. Austr. vu, pl. 41. 
755. DiomepEa FuLIcINosa, Gm. Sooty Albatross, 
The Black Albatross, or “ Blue-bird,’ as the sailors call it, is 
common along our southern coast, at a little distance from land. It 
may at once be distinguished from Ossifraga gigantea by its wedge- 
shaped tail, and when close, by its white eyelids. It is fond of 
hovering over a ship’s deck, and we have obtained specimens by 
watching our chance and sending a small rifle-bullet through them, 
thus killing them instantly ; if struck with shot, their feathers are 
so dense that they seldom receive a death-wound, but drift to 
seaward and perish miserably. We have never observed any of the 
other Albatrosses hover over the deck in the manner that this bird 
constantly does : sometimes we have seen it almost touch a man on 
