Obdeb ANSEE.ES.] [Fam. PKOCELLARIITLE. 



DIOMEDEA CULMINATA. 



(GREY-HEADED ALBATROS.) 



Diomedea chlororhynchos, Aud. Orn. Biogr. v. p. 326 (1839, nee Gm.). 

 Diomedea culminata, Gould, Ann. N. Hist. xiii. p. 361 (1844). 



Ad. similis D. chlororhyncha sed pileo colloque totis pulchre cinereo lavatis : culmine et gonyde sordide flavis : 

 pedibus flavicanti-albis. 



Jim. similis adulto, sed pileo colloque saturatius cinereis : rostro nigro, culmine medialiter flavicante et 

 gonyde obscure cornea. 



Adult. Plumage similar to tbat of D. chlororhyncha, but having the whole of the head and neck washed 

 with delicate slaty grey, and the feathers of the back and mantle more or less margined with brown. 

 Bill black, with the ridge of the upper mandible, and the lower edges of the under mandible, to the 

 junction of the crura, dull yellow; legs and feet yellowish white. Total length 31 5 inches; wing, 

 from flexure, 20 ; tail 7"5 ; bill, along the ridge 5, from the gape to the extremity of lower mandible 

 4*75 ; tarsus 3 - 25 ; middle toe and claw 4 - 75. 



Young. Has the head and neck dark grey; the space between the upper mandible and the eyes, as well as 

 a mark above the latter, of a deeper shade ; beneath the posterior side of the lower eyelid a light grey 

 mark ; the cheeks whitish ; bill black, with indications of yellow in the middle portion of its ridge, and 

 with the outer edges of the lower mandible horn-coloured towards the base ; legs and feet yellowish 

 white. 



Ix the Canterbury Museum there is a young bird of this species, which was picked up on the 

 ocean-beach somewhere between the mouths of the Avon and Waimakariri rivers. My 

 description of the youthful state is taken from this specimen, and that of the adult from a very 

 fine example in the British Museum. 



Mr. Gould writes : — " I frequently observed it between Sydney and the northern extremity 

 of New Zealand ; and it also occurred in the same latitude of the Indian Ocean as abundantly as 

 any of its congeners. It is a powerful bird, and directly intermediate in size between Diomedea 

 cauta and I). chlororhyncha. The specific differences of the three species are so apparent that I 

 had no difficulty whatever in distinguishing them while on the wing. In D. chlororhyncha the 

 bill is more compressed laterally, the culmen is round, and the yellow colouring terminates in an 

 obtuse point midway between the nostrils and the base ; while hi D. culminata the culmen is 

 broad and flat, and has its greyish yellow colouring continued of the same breadth to the base ; 

 the feet of the latter are also fully a third larger than those of the former. The habits, mode of 

 life, and the kind of food partaken of by the D. culminata are so precisely similar to those of 

 its congeners that a separate description would be a mere repetition of what has already been 

 said respecting the preceding species." 



