Order ANSERES.] 



[Fam. PHOCELLAEIID^ 



DIOMEDEA MELANOPHEYS. 



(BLACK-EYEBROWED ALBATROS.) 



Diomedea melanophrys, Boie, in Temm. PL CoL v. pi. 456 (1828) 



Native name. — Torea. 



Ad. albus : interscapulio et scapularibus cum aia tota schistaceo-nigris : dorso postico, uropygio et supra- 



caudalibus albis : cauda schistaceo-nigra, scapis albidis : regione oculari delicate cinerea^ suprti oculum 

 saturatiore, supercilium formante : rostro sordide flavo : pedibus flavicanti-albis, cyanescente vix lavatis, 

 plantis etiam cyanescente tinctis : iride pallide brunne^. 



Adult. General plumage pure white; middle portion of back and upper surface of wings slaty black; in 

 front of the eyes a broad patch of bluish grey, which passes into a darker streak over and behind 

 them ; tail dark ash-grey, the shafts of the feathers white. Irides light brown ; bill dull yellow ; legs 

 and toes yellowish white, the interdigital webs and the joints washed more or less with pale blue. 

 Total length 34 inches; wing, from flexure, 20-5; tail 8; bill, along the curvature 5'25, from gape to 

 extremity of lower mandible 475; tarsus 3; middle toe and claw 4-75. 



Young. Captain Hutton, in his ' Notes on some of the birds inhabiting the Southern Ocean/ writes of 

 this species : — " According to my observations the head in the young is grey, which, as the bird grows 



older, becomes white 



round 



the neck, which breaks first in front, and gradually spreads upwards until the whole is white. The 

 beak remains dark blue for some time after the plumage has assumed the colours of the adult. The 

 feet and legs of the young bird are light blue/'' 



This species of Albatros is far more common in our seas than Diomedea ecculans, and approaches 

 nearer to the coast, often following a vessel to the very entrance of the harbours. After 

 boisterous weather it is sometimes picked up on the ocean-beach, not actually lifeless, but so 

 exhausted by fatigue as to be incapable of rising. 



Captain Hutton has observed that this bird "dives sometimes, but does not appear to 

 like doing so, generally preferring, when any thing good to eat is under water, to let a Night- 

 hawk fish it up ; then giving chase and 



with outstretched wings, it compels him to drop it, and then seizes it before it sinks again." 



" Of all the species with which I am acquainted 

 this is the most fearless of man ; for it often approaches many yards nearer the vessel than any 

 other ; I have even observed it so near that the tips of its pinions were not more than two arms' 

 length from the taffrail. It is very easily captured with a hook and line ; and as this operation 

 gives not the least pain to the bird, the point of the hook merely taking hold in the horny and 



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