80 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4TH Ser. 
down into the postnatal plumage. On the upper parts, hidden 
beneath the natal down, dark mouse gray scapulars and white 
postnatal down have made their appearance. On the breast 
and sides contour-feathers like those of the darker breeding 
birds are emerging at the base of the secondary natal down. 
The chin is nearly bare and the throat rather sparsely covered 
with dark brown natal down, interspersed with filoplumes, 
which are also present on the sides of the head. The bill is 
similar in shape to that of an adult, but in all the other nestlings 
it is strongly decurved. According to Mr. Gifford, the color of 
the bill in nestlings was dark olive, tipped with a lighter tint of 
olive. Heretofore, nestlings of this species have been unde- 
scribed. 
There is considerable variation in the general form and pro- 
portions of the bill in the series of breeding albatrosses taken 
on Hood Island during the eight days ending July 2, 1906. 
For example, the basal width of the upper mandible in Nos. 
1199 and 1221 (both males) is respectively 35.2 mm. and 31 
mm., and the depth of the concavity of the culmen in Nos. 1208 
and 1225 (both females) is respectively 6.5 mm. and 2.5 mm. 
(plate 12). It is evident that the value of structural bill 
characters in the albatrosses can be fully determined only by 
the study of extensive series. 
The plumage of the breeding birds varies considerably in 
color and differs somewhat from the descriptions in the books. 
There is no “slight shade of grey on the sides of face and over 
the eyes,” as is stated by Dr. Godman to be the case in the 
type.’ It may be that this gray coloration is peculiar to the 
tresh plumage. The white of the head and neck is more or less 
tinged with yellow, intensified on the anterior portion of the 
jugulum. In several specimens the forehead is decidedly yel- 
low. The yellow wash of top of head, cervix, and side of neck 
varies ; in some specimens it is Naples yellow, in others buff- 
yellow, and in others still both colors are present. The scapu- 
lars and interscapulars are plain smoky-brown in certain speci- 
mens. The light and dark markings of the upper back, sides 
1 Mon. Petrels, p. 331. 
