On the Flight of Albatrosses. 81 



Lammergeier [Gypaetus barbatus] on a cliff ju*t below tlic 

 Simla cart-road which is appropriated during the summer by 

 a pair of Kestrels. Reid found the bird breeding in company 

 between Alroora and Naini Tal in May. Its food consists of 

 insects, frogs, and small mammals, while once the above- 

 named authority found it feasting on a Dove {Turtur 

 suratensis). 



No. 1265. Tinnunculus cenchkis. Lesser Kestrel. 



Apparently a rare winter visitor. Possibly it has been 

 overlooked. Its smaller size and whitish or pale horny 

 claws — instead of black, as in T. alaudarius — distinguish it at 

 once. Two local skins — of which I can find only one — arc 

 in the Museum, and two mere specimens are said to have 

 been obtained here by the late Mr. Anderson. 

 [To be continued.] 



V. — Remarks on the Flight of Albatrosses. 

 By Captain F. W. Hutton, P.R.S. 

 Sailors apply the name " Albatross " to the large species with 

 \\ hite backs, and distinguish the smaller forms of the Southern 

 Ocean — with black backs and a dark border to the anterior- 

 edge of the lower surface of the wing — as "Mollymawks." 

 The breeding-habits in these two groups are very different ; 

 the Albatrosses choosing grassy Hats, the Mollymawks rocky 

 cliffs, on which to make their nests. The British Museum 

 Catalogue, however, takes the shape of the bill as a character 

 by which to separate the birds; thus placing Diomedea 

 melanophrys, which is the typical Molly mawk, among the 

 Albatrosses. 



In the Pliocene Period Albatrosses inhabited the North 

 Atlantic Ocean ; but at the present time they arc practically 

 limited to the North Pacific, as far south as 20° N., the coast 

 of Peru, and the Southern Ocean between 30° S. and 60° S. 

 Several are dark in colour when they are young and get 

 whiter as they grow old ; and this points to the probability 

 of D. nigripes, of the North Pacific, which remains dark 

 throughout life, being nearer to the prototype Albatross than 

 any other species now living. 



SEll. VIII. — VOL. III. Q 



