594< Mr. C. F. Belcher on Birds 



ill our \val<e. Oct. 31, 8 a.m., one very fine old one, with 

 wings nearly all white above. Nov. 1. one seen. Nov. 2 

 one seen. Nov. 3, one or two seen (one with a sort of 

 chocolate crown). Nov. 4, one or two seen. Nov. 5, none 

 in morning, one in afternoon. No more seen till Nov. 9, 

 when one seen. Nov. 11, one noted. Nov. 13, a fine one 

 in sight. Nov. 14, several of great size seen, among them 

 one young hird all brown above. Nov. 15, half a dozen 

 seen. Nov. 16 (just off Valparaiso), one or two following. 

 Captain Stephens says that they are more abundant in heavy 

 weather, 



Thalassarche melanophrys. Black-browed Mollymawk. 



Oct. 23, very plentiful. The pronounced eye-stripe, yellow 

 and black beak, and dark colour right across upper surface of 

 the wings and back are very noticeable and contrast wdth the 

 Wandering Albatros, whose bill is horn-colour and back 

 w^hitish. The angle of the feathers at the hase of the bill in 

 the Black-browed species is so slight that the line appears 

 nearly straight. Oct. 26, two seen at different times. Oct. 27 

 (nearing Cook Strait), none seen. Oct. 28 (No. 1), none 

 seen. Oct. 28 (No. 2) (approaching Chatham Islands), one 

 following astern. Oct. 29, three seen. Oct. 30, three fol- 

 lowing in our Wake. Oct. 31, one following, but by next 

 day this had disappeared, and I saw no more of these birds. 



Nealbatrus chlororhynchiis. Yellow-nosed Mollymawk. 



On Oct. 28 (No. 2), when off Pyramid Rock, Chatham 

 Is.. I noticed a pair of what I take to have been this species, 

 the most conspicuous mark being the dark grey of the head 

 and neck, showing almost as dark as the back. On Oct. 29, 

 at 5 P.M., 1 again saw two of them. On Oct. 31, one was 

 following the ship. On Nov. 1, one of these birds came 

 much closer than anj^ had previously, and I could note that 

 the upper part of the head and sides of the neck were dark 

 grey; the culmen bright yellow, the rest of the bill ap- 

 pearing black, I could not see whether there was any break 

 in the yellow before the tip of the bill. In flight, they seem 

 smaller than the Black-browed species. On Nov. 3 at least 



