232 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



an Albatross sitting on the water, and it has not got up to join the 

 other birds flying round the ship, but remained on the water until out 

 of sight — a thing I have never observed in any other of the Petrels. 

 I have not seen Nuttall's original account of this bird ; but, as quoted 

 by Dr. Bree, in his " Birds of Europe," it seems nearly as full of errors 

 as words. He has evidently confounded the North Pacific species, D. 

 brachyura, with D. exulans, although they are quite distinct. 



Diomedea melanophrys (Temm.) — Black eye-browed Albatross. — 

 Breadth across the wings, 7 feet ; length, 3 feet. Mr. Gould says that 

 there is no difference between the young and the old birds, except in 

 the colour of the beak, but in this I cannot concur. According to my 

 observations the head in the young is grey, which, as the bird grows 

 older, becomes white — first on the cheeks, then, spreading to the top of 

 the head, leaves a collar round the neck, which breaks first in front, 

 and gradually spreads upwards until the whole is white. The beak re- 

 mains dark blue for some time after the plumage has assumed the co- 

 lours of the adult. The feet and legs of the young bird are light blue. 

 I am unable to give any new information as to where this bird breeds, as 

 it is never seen on the Prince Edward Islands nor Kerguelen's Land. 

 Commander Snow, in his " Two Years' Cruise off Terra del Euego," 

 says that it breeds in the Falkland Isles, and describes its nest as similar 

 to that of D. exulans, but not more than twelve inches high ; and Captain 

 Carmichael states that it breeds in Tristan d'Acunha. Mr. Gould says 

 that it is more easily caught than D. exulans, but my experience is just 

 the contrary. "When on board, it stands pretty firm on its legs ; and I 

 have never seen it vomit oil, as most of the Petrels do. It dives some- 

 times, but does not appear to like doing so — generally preferring, when 

 anything good to eat is under water, to let a Night Hawk (P. hcesitatd) 

 fish it up ; then giving chase, and running along the top of the water, 

 croaking, and with outstretched wings, it compels him to drop it, and then 

 seizes it before it sinks again. This bird is called " Molly Hawk" by 

 sailors. It is common round Cape Agulhas; and in August, 1857, I 

 saw a large number in False Bay, and round Cape Hanglip. It is ap- 

 parently quite diurnal in its habits, both at sea and near land. D. chlo- 

 rorhynchos (Lath.) differs from D. melanophrys only in the rather lighter 

 tint of the mark over the eye, and in the colour of the beak ; in size and 

 habits it is precisely similar; and, as the beak of D. culminate/, (Gould) 

 is just intermediate in colour between the two, I am of opinion that all 

 three are but one species. I am aware that Captain Carmichael states 

 that the nesting of the two is different ; but as he has wrongly described 

 the nesting of both the other species of Albatross, I cannot trust his ac- 

 count without further evidence. No one acquainted with these birds 

 can read Latham's description of B. chlororhynchos without at once 

 seeing that he is describing an immature bird. 



Diomedea fuliginosa (Gmel.) — Sooty Albatross. — Some of these 

 birds are grey on the back and head, with the exception of a broad 

 black stripe round the beak, which gives the head something the look 



