Diomedea melanophrys in the Ferée Islands. 97 
was shot by Johannes Frederik Joensen. These men are all 
from Myggenaes.” [The last-named man is undoubtedly the 
right one. Mr Bergh has afterwards obtained confirmatory 
evidence from another source. | 
“7. As to its mode of life, especially its food, nothing is 
known. It has lived by turns in different parts of the islet : 
during the first years it resorted mostly to the northern part, 
where the Gannets are found in the greatest number, but 
lately it has been seen more frequently in the western part, 
which is not so much occupied by the Gannets. And here 
it was shot from a boat under the rock, when sitting among 
the Gannets’ nests.” 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Diomedea melanophrys belongs to a small section of 
Albatrosses (7halassarche, Rehb.), that may be distinguished 
as follows:—the bill is considerably compressed; the cul- 
minicorn meets behind the rhinothecze with the latericorn; 
the latter is broader at the base than in the middle. Only 
four species of this group have hitherto been described: 
D. melanophrys, D. immutabilis, D. irrorata, and D. gilliana 
(whose right to be included in this group is, perhaps, 
doubtful). When determining the species of the Feroe bird, 
the last two species may be left out entirely. 
It has been questioned, however, by Mr J. A. Harvie- 
Brown (The Zoologist, September 1894, pp. 337, 338), whether 
the Myggenaes Albatross could be a D. melanophrys or a 
D. immutabilis. Consequently it will be necessary to examine 
a little closer into this question, and first of all to establish 
the points of difference between these two species. 
D. immutadilis; that breeds in the island of Laysan in the 
Pacific Ocean, has just been established as a species in 1893 
by the Hon. W. Rothschild. In the very short original 
description (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, No. ix., June Ist, 1893; in 
Ibis, 1893, p. 448), the following points are of importance 
1T have not seen any specimen of this species, It is figured in Mr 
Rothschild’s Avifauna of Laysan, but this work has not been accessible 
to me. 
VOL. XIII. G 
