352 



THE TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS — TUBINARES. 



Hab. Pacific Ocean, including the western coast of America, especially northward to Aleutian 

 and Pry bilof Islands, and Behring's Sea. 



Sp. Char. Adult : Prevailing color white, the top and sides of the head, with nape, strongly 

 tinged with bright straw- yellow. Longer scapulars, tertials, primaries, and tail-feathers slaty 

 brown, the shafts of the primaries bright straw-yellow ; anterior and lower lesser wing-coverts, 

 lower middle and greater coverts, with secondaries, hoary brownish gray. Bill grayish white (in 



Young. 



skins), the maxillary unguis more yellowish, the mandible purplish brownish ; ^ legs iind feet 

 grayish dusky. Young : Uniform sooty grayish brown, the pileum and nape darker (nearly 

 black) ; shafts of primaries bright straw-yellow. Bill pale horn-yellow (in skin) ; legs and feet 

 grayish brown. 



Total length, about 33.00 inches ; extent, 84.00-88.00 ; Aving, 21.00-23.00 ; culmen, 5.19-5.60 ; 

 depth of bill through base, 1.95-2.05 ; tarsus, 3.80-4.00 ; middle toe, 4.65-4.90. 



The Short-tailed Albatross is presumed to inhabit the entire extent of the Pacific 

 Ocean, from the northern coast of America and Asia to Australia, venturing farther 

 north than any other species of its genus. It was ascertained by the naturalists of 

 the Wilkes Expedition to be of frequent occurrence on the coasts of Oregon and 

 California, and is given by Mr. Gould as a bird of Australia. It has been occasionally 

 mistaken for the D. exulans, which it resembles, but is smaller, though larger than 

 any of the other species of this genus. 



Mr. Peale states that great numbers of this Albatross were observed on the north- 

 west coast of America, and that it was found to vary as much in its coloration as 

 D. exulans, and even more than that species, requiring many years to acquire its 



^ "Bill flesh -coloi', with a faint purplish tinge; hook light horn-color; iris brown" (Bean, Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 5, p. 170). Eyelids greenish white (Goulu). 



