860 DIOMEDEA 



behind and below the eye dull white ; tail white at the base ; bill dusky 

 purplish brown, legs and feet black. Gape 4*6, wing 18'0, tail 5'5, tarsus 

 4'5 inch. The young bird has the crown and sides of the head whiter, 

 the rump and upper tail-coverts white, or sooty brown and white inter- 

 mixed. 



Hob. North Pacific Ocean ; the coasts of Japan and China ; 

 on the American side from the coast of California, where it is 

 abundant, to Alaska. 



The present species has been much confounded with D. 

 albatrus, owing to the similarity of the young of that to the 

 adult of the present species. I do not find any details respect- 

 ing its nidification, but a single egg in the British Museum, 

 obtained on Sulphur Island, Bonin group, Japan, on the 8th 

 of June, is dull brownish white, without markings, and measures 

 4-2 by 2-5. 



1186. BLACK-BROWED ALBATROSS. 

 DIOMEDEA MELANOPHRYS. 



Dwmedea melanophiys, Boie, in Temm. PI. Col. 456 (1828) ; Gould, B. 

 of Austral, vii. pi. 43 ; Salvin, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxv. p. 447 ; 

 Saunders, p. 753 ; Ridgway, p. 52. 



Ad. Head, neck, entire under parts, rump, and upper tail-CD verts white ; 

 a short slaty greyish black band before and behind the eye ; back and 

 scapulars slaty greyish brown, the wings dusky brown ; tail slate-grey, 

 the shafts white ; bill yellowish horn, darker at the tip ; legs and feet 

 yellow. Gape 5-2, wing 20'0, tail 8'0, tarsus 3'05 inch. 



Hctb. Southern Ocean, straying occasionally to the North 

 Atlantic; one was obtained in 80 IT N. lat. and 4 E. long, 

 in June, 1878; one near Linton in Cambridgeshire in July, 1897; 

 and in 1893 one was shot near Myggenaes in the Faeroes, 

 which for the past thirty to forty years had consorted with the 

 Gannets on that island. 



Like its allies it is essentially an oceanic bird, and only 

 frequents the land during the breeding season. It breeds on 

 many islands in the Southern Ocean, in colonies, the nest 

 being a pile of earth and moss about four inches high, and 

 a single egg is usually deposited, though occasionally 2 are 

 found in the same nest. These are dull white, with a well- 

 marked cap of rufous specks and blotches at the larger end, 

 and measure about 41 by 2-57. 



Diomedea exulans, Linn., is said to have been obtained on 

 the coast of Norway, near Dieppe, Antwerp, and Chaumont ; 

 Thalassogeron culminatus (Gould) is said to have been procured 



