PBOCELLABIID^ : DI0MEBEIN2E : ALBATROSSES. 



Jib 



than half the -sring (in one species about one-third the wing). Coloration variegated with 

 white and black, or uniformly fuliginous. Of largest size in the subfamily. D. exulans is 

 type of this group ; our two species fall in a subgenus Phccbastna. 



Analysis of Species. 



Adult white, with dark wings and tail ; bill and feet ligbt , brachyura 810 



Adult fuliginous ; bill and feet dark nigripes fill 



810. D. brachyu'ra, (Gr. (Spa^i^f, irac/jKS, short ; ovpd, ojtra, tail.) Short-tailed Albatross. 

 Bill 5.00 or 6.00 inches long, with moderately concave culmeu aud prominent hook. Frontal 

 feathers forming almost no reentrance on culmeu, running nearly straight around whole base 

 of upper mandible, and extending scarcely farther on sides of under mandible, wiih hardly 

 any convexity. Tail very short, contained rather more than 3 times in length of wing. 

 Total length about 3.00 feet, with spread of about 7.00 feet; wing 20.00 inches; tail 5..50- 

 6.00 inches; tarsus nearly 4.00 iuchcs. Adult plumage white, the head and neck usu- 

 ally washed witli shiniug rusty- yellow ; wings and tail dark or blackish, with a wholly 

 indeterminate amouut of white on the coverts and inner cjuills — souietimes nearly all the 

 wing-coverts white excepting a line ahjng the border of the fore-arm — sometimes the white 

 restricted to a small space at the elbow. Bill pale reddish-yell(jw, drying pale dingy- 

 yellowish ; feet flesh-color. Young dark-colored, resembling nigripes, but easily distinguished. 

 Pacific Ocean at large ; abundant off our coast. This albatross drops a single egg on the 

 ground, nearly equal-ended, white, 4.20 X 2.60; both sexes incubate. 



811. D. ni'gripes. (Lat. nigripes, black-footed.) Black-footed Albatross. Bill about 

 4.00 (uever 5.00) inches long, extremely stout, with the culmen almost perfectly straight 

 to the hook, which is comparatively suiall and weak, scarcely lising above level of the culmen. 



The horny piece forming 

 the culmeu very broad, 

 esjiecially at base, where 

 it wideus and descends to 

 overlap the lateral piece. 

 Outline of feathers much 

 as in hrachi/ura, yet a 

 sliglit reentrance on fore- 

 head, and feathers on sides 

 of under mandible salient 

 with a sliglit convexity. 

 Commissure about straight 

 to the hook. Bill about 

 one-tliird longer than head, 

 slightly longer than tarsus, 

 equal to middle toe with- 

 out claw; 1.50 deep and 

 1.25 wide at base. Tail 

 contained 3 times in the 

 and grayer, 

 rather plumbeous, below, lightening or whitening on head ; feathers of the upper parts with 

 paler edges, as if faded ; spot before eye and streak over eye quite black. Primaries black 

 duller on inner webs, with yellow shafts to near the end ; tail blackish, duller below, with 

 whitish shafts except at tip. A final plumage may be lighter than as described, but is 'never 

 white, and other characters prove the validity of the species. Chord of culmen 4.00, its curve 

 4.60 ; distance from feathers on side of upper mandible to tip 8.50 ; ditto lower mandible 3.20 ■ 



Fig. 623. — Sooty Albatross, much reduced. (From Tenney, after Audubon.) 

 wing. Bill dark-colored; feet black. Plumage dark choctolate-brown, paler 



