ZOOLOGY. 269 



Never having seen such a bird before, and all the Indians who saw it having declared 

 positively that it was new to them, the above named gentlemen had the bird skinned. The 

 specimen, however, was unfortunately afterwards destroyed. 



The fact that the bird sat on the water, and upon becoming alarmed retreated to it again at 

 but a short distance, forbids the idea that it was a '^ crane;" besides, the fact that the long- 

 feet and legs of one of the ardeince would have at once been recognized. Perhaps the bird 

 was an albino cormorant, yet its want of shyness or fear would seem to indicate the contrary. — S. 



Family PROCELLARIDAE. The Petrels. 



Sub-Family DIOMEDEINAE.— T h e Albatrosses. 



DIOMEDEA BRACHYURA, Temminck. 



Tlie Slioit-Tallcd Albati-oss. 



DiimuJea brachyura, Temm. PL col. v, about 1S28. — Cassin, 111. I, 1855, 289, pi. 1. Adult. — Baibd and Lawrence, 



Gen. Eep. Birds, 822. 

 Diomedea nigripes, .\ud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 327.— lu. Birds Am. VII, 1812, 198.— Cass. 111. I, 1854, 210; pi. 



.\.xxv. {Young.) 



Sp. Cii, — Adult. — Hfud and neck white, tinged with pule yellow ; primaries, tips of secondaries and tertiaries, upper edge 

 of the wing, and greater wing coverts brownish black ; tail white, tipped wiih dark brown ; back and entire under plumage 

 pure white ; bill pale reddish yellow; legs Uesh color. 



Length, 33 inches ; alar extent, 84 ; wing, 20 ; tail, 51 ; bill, 5 ; tarsus, 3J. 



The young are ashy brown, lighter on the abdomen ; for some distance around the base of the bill, and a space below the 

 eye, grayish white; bill dusky; tarsi and feet black. Length, 30.50 inches; extent, 85 inches. Iris brown; bill black, 

 with a purple tint ; feet black. 



Hah, — North Pacilic ; coasts of California and Oregon. 



A dusky colored albatross, which proved to be the Diomedea brachyura, was obtained by me 

 in the spring of 1856 from Captain Diggs, of the brig Cyrus, who had taken it off the coast of 

 Oregon a few days before. 



During a winter passage of fourteen days from the Straits of Juan de Fuca to San Francisco, 

 although I saw many birds of the genus, I saw but one individual in light colored plumage, and 

 that was near the mouth of the Columbia. All the birds I noticed seemed to belong to the 

 species Avhich Cassin has figured as the B. nigripes of Audubon. In a late number of Mr. 

 Cassin' s work he takes the ground that the I), nigripes is merely the B. brachyura in immature 

 plumage. If this be the case I cannot understand why the young birds preponderate so greatly, 

 as in my voyage from the Straits of Fuca I saw the single bird in light colored plumage spoken 

 of above, and a little later, in my voyage from San Francisco to Hong Kong, China, I saw but 

 one more in white plumage, as far west as the 145th degree of east longitude, and north of 

 latitude 12° north, although in both passages dark colored birds were common. One of these, 

 caught about four hundred miles southwest of San Francisco, had the white spot at the base of 

 the bill very apparent, and many other birds of the species seen flying in our wake were 

 similarljr marked. 



I fully concur in the remarks of Mr. Peale, quoted by Cassin, that the species D. chloror- 

 hynchus and D. fitsca (D. fuliginosa, Gmelin) are confined to the south of the equator, and 

 think, therefore, that they should both be stricken from the northwest fauna. It is true that 

 specimens of both species brought home by Dr. Townsend are said to have been obtained from 



