564 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



There has been a great deal of confusion as to the different species of the larger 

 albatrosses. Three species are separated by Godman/ the Wandering, Snowy and 

 Royal Albatrosses. The observations of the writer in South Georgia show that the 

 Wandering and Snowy Albatrosses are the different ages and sexes of the same species. 

 The Royal Albatross is recorded from the sub-antarctic waters of New Zealand and 

 the writer has had no opportunity of examining specimens of it, but he is strongly of 

 the opinion that when a thorough examination of the species comes to be made it will 

 prove to be the same as the other two. 



When they are old, the birds are pure white all over, with black tips to the primaries 

 and the outer secondaries, and have a little dark pencilling on the upper wing coverts. 

 Those seen ashore nesting usually have a patch of salmon-pink colour over the ears, 

 sometimes on one side only. This appears to be a stain of some sort and is not a true 

 pigmentation of the feathers; it is not constant, sometimes being absent, or on one 

 side only, as stated above. The writer is able to offer no explanation as to its cause. 

 In these old birds during the winter the bill is bright salmon-pink, with the tip of 

 the mandible white, and the feet and legs are pink; but in the nesting season the pink 

 colour is very much less pronounced, the bill being yellowish buff and the feet 

 light grey. These are the examples that fall into the category of species Diomedea 

 chionoptera (Plate XLVIII, fig. i). 



The younger breeding birds have more black markings on them, being white with 

 dark pencilling all over them, not confined to the upper wing coverts, as in the older 

 birds. The only parts of the plumage which are white are the sides of the head and 

 the neck. The bill changes from pink at the base to huffish white at the tip, the mandible 

 being yellowish with a slight pink flush at the base. The feet are very light bluish 

 grey: darker examples occur with darker feet and yellower bills. In all the iris is very 

 dark brown and the eyelid is white with a greenish tinge. These are the examples 

 that fall into the category of species Diomedea exidans (Plate XLVIII, fig. 2). 



That the two species, Dmnedea chionoptera and exidans, are identical is proved by 

 the fact that the writer has frequently seen birds of each type pairing together. In 

 Plate XLIX, figs, i, 2, 3, 4, an exidans itxm\c with dark head, back, tail and wings is 

 shown going through the courtship ceremonies with a chionoptera male with white 

 head, back and tail. The all-white chionoptera type is the fully adult form, and the 

 darker type covered in greater or lesser degree with black pencillings is the younger 

 bird (Fig. i). The females reach the light phase of plumage at a later age than do 

 the males, and this is shown by the fact that, though two light birds and two dark 

 birds have been seen mated together, the usual rule is to see a light and a dark bird 

 mated, the light one being the male (Plate L, fig. i). 



The albatross come to land for nesting in November. Though they all nest in 

 proximity on certain areas of ground the nests are not placed close enough together to 

 call the breeding colonies rookeries. The spots selected for nest building are the tussac 

 covered islands, hills and headlands near the sea. They do not nest on the precipitous 



^ Godman, A Monograph of the Petrels, 1908. 



