6 4 



PROCELLARIIFORMES 



CHAP. 



his wings, his head goes back, and his back goes in ; down drop 

 two enormous webbed feet straddled out to their full extent, 

 and with a hoarse croak, between the cry of a Eaven and that of 

 a sheep, he falls ' souse ' into the water. Here he is at home 

 again, breasting the waves like a cork. Presently he stretches 

 out his neck, and with great exertion of his wings runs along 

 the top of the water for seventy or eighty yards, until, at last, 



FIG. 18. Wandering Albatros. Diomedea exulans. 



having got sufficient impetus, he tucks up his legs, and is 

 once more fairly launched in the air." ] D. regia, of the New 

 Zealand seas, has no undulations on the back ; the similar D. 

 chionoptera, of the Southern Indian Ocean, has nearly white wing- 

 coverts ; and D. albatrus, of the North Pacific, has buff crown 

 and nape. Of the smaller forms, or Mollymauks (p. 65), D. 

 irrorata, of West Peru, is sooty -brown with plentiful white 

 mottlings and white, head ; D. nigripes, of the North Pacific, is 

 the same colour, but shews white only at the base of the tail 

 1 Ibis, 1865, pp. 281, 282. 



