"SCOTIA RISE" REGION. 273 



Of these birds he says : 



" Some were pale grey all over the head and neck, others had merely a broad or 

 narrow collar of grey incomplete below. The size also varied considerably, but all had 

 the bill of D. melanophrys, dusky yellow and always with a darker tip. We considered 

 these grey-headed and grey-necked individuals, if the bill was broad, to be the young 

 of D. melanophrys. There was no difficulty in distinguishing the grey-headed D. 

 melanophrys from the grey-headed Th. chlororhynchus and Th. culminatus, since the 

 colour of the bill in the two latter is much more clean-cut and distinctly black and 

 yellow than the dusky-brownish or yellowish bill of the immature D. melanophrys. 



" Until October 19th we saw only immature birds, but on that day the white-headed 

 adult, with lemon-yellow bill and orange tip, appeared. After this we saw each day 

 for a while only adult birds, but on October 28th we had the following together : white- 

 headed adults with lemon-yellow bill and bright orange tip ; white-headed birds with 

 bright yellow bill and dusky tip, or with dull yellow bill and blackish tip ; and grey- 

 headed birds with dusky brownish bill and darker tip. 



" Throughout the first half of November we saw one or other of these forms almost 

 daily, and came to the conclusion that they were simply age-changes, and that the grey- 

 headed were the immature." 



The Scotia's specimens belong to phases 1 to 3 according to the above arrangement. 

 It does not appear that the Scotia encountered any birds in the grey-headed immature 

 stages of this species, although this cannot be definitely affirmed. It is significant, 

 however, in view of the curious way in which the Discovery sometimes for long periods 

 encountered only white-headed adults, at other times only grey-headed young birds, 

 and at others, again, all the phases together. The different varieties of " Molliemauks " 

 seen on the present section of the Scotia's voyage were described fairly clearly in the 

 Zoological Log, but it is possible that grey-headed stages of D. melanophrys were not 

 distinguished from the grey-headed or grey-collared birds which will now be described. 



From April 9th onwards a distinct form of Albatros was noticed, which was logged 

 as the " Black-billed Albatros." It is thus described on the above-mentioned day in the 

 Zoological Log : " Mr Bruce saw a new albatros of the size and shape of D. melano- 

 ph rys, and of the same colour except the back of its neck, which was dark with a dark 

 ring complete or almost complete round about it, and a black beak.'' This form, after 

 being observed on April 9th in 51 S., was not again met with until the 16th, on which 

 day and on the ensuing days up to the 20th April it was again encountered. It was, 

 however, not observed in the immediate vicinity of Gough Island, nor subsequently. 



In his account of the Discovery's birds, Dr Wilson (loc. cit., p. 113) says: "In 

 the Atlantic between Punta Arenas and the Falkland Islands we occasionally saw one 

 or two of the typical adults, the last on July 27th, when D. melanophrys disappeared 

 entirely, and its place was taken by a form which we had before this hardly seen at all, 

 a bird in every respect the same in shape and size as D. melanophrys, but with a grey 

 ring always round the neck and the bill always quite black " ; and again in a footnote 



