DIOMEDEID.E — THE ALBATROSSES — THALASSOGERON. 357 



above the surface to use its wings without wetting them. Its eyesight is exceedingly 

 acute ; it can distinguish a discolored spot in the water a yard in diameter from a dis- 

 tance of at least five miles, and even much farther than our unaided eyes can see the 

 bird itself. Its flight, in calm weather, consists of a series of five or six short, sharp 

 strokes, made at intervals of a second, or more, apart, followed by a short period of 

 comparative quiet. It appears to subsist mainly on a pelagic crab and the refuse 

 from vessels. It usually flies in flocks of six or eight, but often smaller ; and on one 

 occasion a solitary individual followed the vessel for hundreds of miles without a 

 companion. 



Mr. Dall, in his Notes on the Avifauna of the Aleutian Islands west of Unalashka, 

 referring to the question as to where this species breeds, states, on the authority of 

 Mr. George Holder, that it nests on the coral island of Gaspar Rico, near the equator, 

 in the winter season. This gentleman, who is said to be an intelligent and trust- 

 worthy observer, informed Mr. Dall that, on a voyage in quest of new guano islands, 

 he touched at Gaspar Rico, and found this bird, together with a species of Petrel, and 

 a Tern, breeding abundantly in a low scrubby growth of bushes, which are the only 

 representatives of trees on that island. His impression was that it laid but one 

 moderately-sized white egg in a depression in the soil, around which a little sea-weed 

 or dry herbage was gathered. It is not known to breed anywhere on the northwest 

 coast of America, or on the northern Pacific islands. 



Diomedea melanophrys. 



THE SPECTACLED ALBATROSS. 



Diomedea melanophrys, "Boie," Temm. PI. Col. no. 456(1838). — Gould, Birds Australia, VII. pi. 

 43. — Coues, Pioc. Philad. Acad. 1866, 181. — Bean, Proe. U. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. 5, 1882, 170 

 (off coast of California, long. 142° 23' W., lat. 40° 30' N.). 



Hab. Southern oceans generally, north to at least 40° 30' north latitude, and east nearly to 

 coast of California (Bean, 1. c). 



Sp. Char. Adult: Back and scapulars brownish slate, becoming more ashy anteriorly ; wings 

 uniform dark brownish slate ; tail brownish gray, the shafts of the feathers yellowish white ; shafts 

 of primaries deep yellow basally, dark brownish terminally. Head, neck, rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, and entire lower parts wbite ; an indistinct grayish stripe through eye, darkest immediately 

 before and behind the eye. Bill yellowish, the ungui and base of culmen tinged with horn-color; 1 

 legs and feet " pearly slate " (light brownish in dried skin). Wing, 19.50-20.00 inches ; tail, 8.00- 

 8.50 ; tarsus, 3.00-3.25 ; middle toe, 4.00-4.30 ; culmen, 4 30-4.70. 



Genus THALASSOGERON, Ridgway. 



T/mlassiarche, Forbes, Zool. Challenger Exp. IV. 1882, 57 (not Thalassarche, Reich. 1852). 

 Thalassogcron, Ridgw. MS. (type, Diomcdia culminata, Gould). 



Char. Similar to Diomedea, but culminicorn widely separated from the latericorn by the 

 interposition of a strip of naked skin behind the nostril. Bill much compressed. 



1 "No difference whatever is observable in the plumage of the sexes, neither is there any visible varia- 

 tion in this respect between youth and maturity ; a never-failing mark, however, exists, by which these 

 latter may be distinguished — the young bird has the bill dark brown, while in the adult that organ is of 

 a blight huffy yellow ; and individuals in the same flight may frequently be seen in which the bill varies 

 from dark horn-brown to the most delicate yellow" (Gould, Birds of Australia, pt. vii.). 



A male from Valparaiso, Chili, had the "bill gray, with dark tips ; feet light gray ; iris dark brown " 

 (Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 12). 



