288 ORNITHOLOGY OF THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



This bird was captured under somewhat singular circumstances. Dr Harvey Pirie 

 was proceeding up the ravine when he came upon it on the top of a mass of tussock- 

 grass on which it had alighted, but from which it could not rise on the wing again. 

 It was apparently quite uninjured, and could only have been there a few minutes, 

 for other members of the party had passed the spot only a little in advance, and 

 could not have failed to see the bird had it been there, as the ravine is particularly 

 narrow at the point where it was found. This curious incident might be explained 

 on the supposition that it was a young bird essaying to reach the sea from its inland 

 nursery which had halted by the way. Mr Comer tells us that the young of Diomedea 

 exulans do not fly until they are ten months old ; and if this holds good even for a lesser 

 period in other species it would help to explain the date and the peculiar circumstances 

 under which this specimen was found away from the sea. 



Mr Rothschild and Dr Hartert, who have examined the specimen, tell me that it 

 resembles T. carteri, recently described by Mr Rothschild (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, xiv. 

 p. 6) from a single example which came ashore with an injured wing at Point Cloates, 

 N.W. Australia, and that the Gough Island bird only differs in having the toes nearly 

 75 inch shorter, and in having the hind-neck washed with grey instead of being white. 

 As regards my suggestion that the specimen under consideration may possibly be 

 immature, Dr Hartert remarks that he finds nothing to show that other albatroses 

 have the bill black in the young, and, moreover, that such an example would hardly 

 have a face with pure white sides. 



21. Phocbetria fuliginosa (Gmelin). 



A typical specimen of the Sooty Albatros is in the collection, and many others were 

 seen, with lesser numbers of Hutton's Albatros (P. cornicoides), around the Scotia as 

 she lay off the island. 



Mr Comer (Verrill, t.c., pp. 445 and 464) describes the species breeding at Gough 

 Island as having the beak dark with " a yellow stripe on each side." It is common but 

 does not breed in " rookeries " ; it places its nests separately on cliffs or projecting rocks, 

 where it is most difficult to get at them. The bird commences to lay by the middle of 

 September, and, while sitting, keeps up a continual cry similar to that of a young goat. 



This is probably the form which also nests at Tristan da Cunha, for Captain 

 Carmichael (t.c., p. 489) alludes to the bird as the "Black" Albatros (Diomedea 

 fuliginosa) and describes its breeding-habits. 



22. Phosbetria cornicoides Hutton. 



I think that there can be little doubt of this being a distinct species. It was only 

 imperfectly described by Captain Hutton (The Ibis, 1867, p. 192), from specimens 

 observed at sea, and as a variety of P. fuliginosa. 



In a letter dated January 4th, 1905, Captain Hutton tells me that this form has the 



