104 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Socvety. 
p- 165). In this place Captain Abbott writes: “This 
Albatross is seldom seen in East Falkland, but breeds in 
large numbers in the adjacent islands.” With “adjacent 
islands” Captain Abbott means surely the islets immediately 
south of East Falkland, and not the comparatively distant 
Tierra del Fuego. 
Whether it breeds on Tristan da Cunha is very doubtful. 
Mr Sperling (22), indeed, insists on having obtained eggs of 
D. melanophrys from this place; but he has evidently identified 
the bird from the eggs. The eggs of this species are, however, 
not to be distinguished with certainty from those of D. chloror- 
hyncha (ef. Layard, Ibis, 1869, p. 377). Moseley (“ Notes by a 
Naturalist,” pp. 129, 150) calls the Mollymauk breeding on 
the Tristan group (Nightingale Island) D. culninata, though 
the colour of the bill, according to his description, seems 
rather to indicate D. chlororhyncha ;? while Murray (ap. 
Sclater, 37) mentions it as D. chlororhyncha. The Albatross 
egos collected on Nightingale Island and Tristan da Cunha 
by the “Challenger” Expedition are by Sclater (32) assigned 
to “ Diomedea sp. inc.” In reality there is thus no other 
evidence than Sperling’s, which rests on very weak founda- 
tion, for supposing that D. melanophrys breeds on the 
Tristan group. 
Still smaller reason is there to believe that it breeds on 
the Prince Edward Islands. Milne-Edwards (36) certainly 
insists on it, but refers to Hutton only (Zdis, 1865, p. 283). 
Professor Hutton, however, says just the contrary: “It is 
never seen on the Prince Edward Islands.” On Kerguelen 
Land it has never been found breeding. 
1 Captain Carmichael (Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xii., 1817, p. 489) mentions 
four species of Diomedea as breeding there: spadicea, cxulans, chlororhyncha, 
and fuliginosa; as spadicea and exulans must be considered as synonymous, 
there are consequently but three in number. Carmichael’s work appeared 
twenty-one years before Temminck published the description of D. 
melanophrys. When Hutton (12) nevertheless quotes the authority of 
Carmichael for stating that the latter species breeds on Tristan da Cunha, 
it is surely because Hutton is inclined to believe that D. melanophrys, 
chlororhyncha, and culminata are the same species. 
2 Possibly Moseley considers the D. culminata and chlororhyncha as 
synonymous; at all events the latter species is not named a single time in his 
“‘Notes” from the ‘‘ Challenger” Expedition. 
