556 RARE BRITISH BIRDS 



[CAPE- PIGEON [Ddption captnse (Linnaeus)]. 



1. Description. Has the top of the head, cheeks, sides of the neck, upper neck, mantle, 

 and upper back uniform greyish black ; lower back, rump, upper tail-coverts, secondaries and 

 their coverts white, terminating in a broad, rounded marking of greyish black ; basal two-thirds 

 of the tail pure white ; terminal third greyish black ; primary quills margined outwardly and 

 with the tips blackish brown, inner margins and base white ; chin and throat white, with a rounded 

 spot of greyish black at the extremity of each feather ; remainder of the under surface white ; 

 bill and feet black. Length about 16 in. [406 mm.], [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. This species inhabits the southern seas, and is only a casual wanderer 

 to the North Atlantic. Its normal range extends from the southern tropic to the Antarctic 

 ice barrier, but it has only been found breeding in Kerguelen and the S. Orkneys, though it 

 probably nests also on S. Georgia and the S. Shetlands. It has occurred as a casual on the 

 coasts of Ceylon, Madagascar, the United States, Peru, and three times in the British Isles, but 

 in most cases it is probable that the birds had been captured and afterwards liberated. 

 [F. c. B. J.] ] 



THE ALBATROSSES 



[ORDER : Procellariiformes. SUBORDER : Tubinares. FAMILY : Procella/riidce. 



SUBFAMILY : Diomediince] 



BLACKBROWED-ALBATROSS [Diomedea melanophrys Temminck. Mollymawk. German, 

 schwarzzugeliger Albatross\. 



1. Description. Distinguished from any other of the British petrels in that the nostrils 

 open on either side of a wide and rounded culmen, and by the black line running through the 

 eye. The sexes are alike in plumage, and no seasonal change takes place. Length about 30 in. 

 [762 mm.]. Head, neck, and under parts white ; a black patch in front of and continued in a 

 line behind the eye ; back anil wings slaty grey, shading into the white neck ; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts white ; tail coloured like the back and wings ; iris hazel ; bill yellow, reddish at the 

 tip ; legs, feet, and webs fleshy grey ; nails yellowish horn. [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. This species is also an inhabitant of the southern oceans, and as a rule 

 does not range much north of the bays of the South African coast and those of South America. 

 It breeds chiefly on the island groups in the New Zealand seas, nesting in large numbers on the 

 Chatham, Auckland, Campbell, Bounty, and Antipodes Islands, and also in the Falklands, 

 Crozets, and Kerguelen. As a casual visitor it has occurred several times in the North Atlantic, 

 once on the Faeroes, once in lat. 80 11' N. and long. 4 E., once in Cambridgeshire (1897); 

 and an albatross, which was probably of this species, was seen twenty miles N.W. of the Orkneys 

 by Harvie-Brown. In America it has been recorded north to California. [F. c. R. j.] 



THE GREBES 1 



[ORDER : Colymbiformes. SUBORDER : Colymbi. FAMILY : Colymbidce] 



[AMERICAN PIEDBILLED-GREBE, Podilymbus podiceps (L.). Is said to have been killed near 

 Weymouth in 1881 ; was probably due to an exchange of skins. [F. c. R. j.] ] 



1 Vol. iv. p. 405. 



