Aves.] SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 575 



Diomedea bulled, Rothschild. (White-capped mollymawk.) 



Diomedea hulleri, Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, i, 1893, p. 58. 



Tliis bird was breeding on the Snares on the occasion of my visit in February, 

 1907, but we did not find the principal nesting-grounds. The few nests examined 

 were made in dry situation on a sloping cliff, and, perhaps, in consequence, were 

 but little raised above the general level of the ground. 



Hah. — New Zealand seas. 



Diomedea salvini, Rothschild. (Grey-backed mollymawk.) 



Thalassogeron salvini, Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, i, 1893, p. 58. 



I saw what I presumed to be this bird in large numbers off the Bounty Islands 

 in February, 1907, but as we did not land I had no opportunity of seeing it on its 

 known breeding-grounds. The nest is said to be made of feathers matted with guano. 

 An example in the Canterbury Museum contains vegetable stems or leaves, but no 

 feathers. It is about 14 in. in diameter. 



D. cauta, Gould, is doubtfully distinct from this species. Filhol records D. 

 chlororhjncha as breeding at Campbell Island, but Buller remarks, " He probably 

 did not distinguish the species accurately."* 



Hob. — New Zealand seas. 



Phoebetria, Reichenbach, 1852. 



Phoebetria fuliginosa, Gmelin. (Sooty albatros.) 



Diomedea fuliginosa, Gmelin, Syst. Nat., ed. xiii, i, 1788, p. 568. 



As the whaleboat was rowed up the various arms of Carnley Harbour, at the 

 Auckland Islands, we frequently saw the sooty albatros sitting on its nest in a cleft 

 in the perpendicular face of the cliffs. 



On our way to Musgrave Peninsula, on the 24th November, we discovered two 

 birds nesting close together on a ledge not more than 30 ft. from the base of the cliff. 

 A member of our Maori crew climbed to one of the nests and seized the bird by the 

 legs. We thus had an opportunity of examining it alive. The bill is black, and the 

 groove on the mandible is blue ; eye, hazel ; upper eyelid and hinder part of lower 

 lid, white ; head, sooty ; neck and upper back, pale grey ; wings, dark-bluish grey ; 

 legs and feet, pink (not yellow, as described) ; shafts of wings and tail-feathers, 

 white. 



This bird is also known to breed at Antipodes Island, where I saw it wheeling 

 over the cliffs. I have not seen notice of it at Campbell Island, where I obtained 

 eggs in February, 1907, taken on the western cliffs. 



Hah. — Southern Ocean; Auckland, Campbell, and Antipodes Islands. 

 * Buller, Supp. Birds of N.Z., i, 1905, p. 154. 



