PROCELLARIID.E DIOMEDEA 495 



the arm and forearm, which bears from thirty to forty secondary 

 quills ; tail short and rounded ; tarsus shorter than the middle 

 toe and covered with small hexagonal scales ; hind toe absent 

 externally. 



This genus contains the Albatroses, some nine or ten species of 

 which are usually recognised, distributed throughout the Southern 

 Ocean and extending far north of the line in the Pacific. Two 

 species are commonly found in the seas round South Africa. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Larger, wing about 27'0 ; upper back white with 



narrow transverse zigzag freckling D. exulans, p. 495. 



B. Smaller, wing about 20 f O ; back black D. melanophys, p. 499. 



803. Diomedea exulans. Wandering Albatros. 



Diomedea exulans, Linn. Sijst. Nat. 12th ed. i, p. 214 (1766) ; Gould, 

 B. Austr. vii, pi. 38 (1844) ; Button, Ibis, 1865, p. 278, 1867, p. 185, 

 1903, p. 81, figs. 7-10 ; Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 363 (1867) ; Gurney, in 

 Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 355 (1872) ; Moseley, Notes Nat. Chal- 

 lenger, pp. 134, 171, 180, 183, 254 (1879) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. 

 Aft: p. 770 (1884) ; Challenger Reports, Narrative i, pt. 1, p. 294, pi. 

 xiv [birds on nest] (1885) ; Swinburne, P. It. Phys. Soc. Edin. ix, p. 199 

 (1886) ; Green, Ocean Bds. p. 4, pi. 1 (1887) ; Salvin, Cat. B. M. xxv. 

 p. 441 (1896) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i. p. 169 (1896) ; Eeichenow, Vdg. 

 Afr i, p. 21 (1900). 



The " Cape Sheep," " Great Albatros," " Man of War Bird " and " Goney " 

 are all names which are sometimes applied to this bird. 



Description. Adult. General colour above white, the feathers 

 on the nape, the back of the neck and upper half of the back with 

 very narrow zigzag cross bands of black, about three on each 

 feather, giving a freckled appearance ; wings dark brown mottled 

 with a good deal of white, the quills with concealed white bases, the 

 secondaries and most of the coverts with white inner webs, the 

 visible white increasing away from the tips, scapulars and some of 

 the coverts on the humeral portion of the wing white freckled with 

 black like the back but more strongly ; tail-coverts white, tail white 

 with a few slaty spots and mottlings on the edges and tips of the 

 feathers ; below including the under wing- and tail-coverts white, with 

 traces of the characteristic freckling on the sides and across the 

 middle of the chest ; exposed portions of the primaries black below 

 without a white patch. 



