PliOCELIiAEIID^ THALASSOGEEON 503 



No observer, so far as I am aware, has described the nesting 

 liabits of tliis Mollymawk ; the species met with by Prof. Moseley on 

 Nightingale Island appears to have been T. chlorohynchus, though 

 identified by him as T. culminatus. 



Layard met witli this species "off the south coast" when 

 cruising in H.M.S. "Castor" many years ago, and two of the 

 specimens obtained by liim are now in tlie South African Museum. 

 Mr. Parkin, too, on one single day during a calm on December 2, 

 1890, when on a voyage to Australia in lat. 39° S., long. 8° E., shot 

 no less than six examples, so that the species cannot be very rare 

 in Cape seas. 



806. Thalassogeron chlororhynchus. Yelloiu-nosed MoUymawh. 



Diomedea chlororhynchus, Gmcl. Syst. Nat. i, p. 568(1788); Oouhl, 

 B. Auatr. vii, pi. 42 (1844) ; Layard, This, 1862, p. 97, 1869, p. 377 

 id. B. 8. Afr. p. 364 (1867) ; Sharpc, ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 772 

 (1884) ; Green, Ocean Bds. p. 12, pi. iii, fig. 5 (1887) ; 8helley, B 

 Afr. i, p. 169 (1896) ; Chun, Atcs den Ticfcn Welfm. p. 284, with fig, 

 (1900). 

 Thalassogeron chlororhynchus, Salvin, Cat. B. M. xxv, p. 451 (1896) 

 Beichenoiv, Vog. Afr. i, p. 22 (1900). 

 " Pretty Bird " of Sealers. 



Description. Adult. — Head and neck all round, rump and upper 

 tail-coverts and below throughout including the under wing-coverts, 

 pure white ; an indistinct grey mark in front of the eye ; centre of 

 the back and wings brown, darkest on the latter, slightly tinged with 

 slaty on the former ; tail ashy with white shaft marks, the outer 

 tail-feathers paler than the central ones, almost white along the 

 outside of the shafts ; under wing-coverts white except along the 

 edge of the wing where they are brown. 



Iris brown ; bill black ; the culminicorn which is pointed pos- 

 teriorly and separated from the laterieorn by a black membrane, 

 yellow, becoming blood-orange at the tip ; a little yellow at the edge 

 of the base and at the tip of the lower mandible but the greater part 

 of its length black ; legs flesh-coloured. 



Length about 29'5 ; wing 18-5 ; tail 7'75 ; culmen 5-25 ; tarsus 

 3-0 ; middle toe 3-90. 



Distributioti. — As with the other Albatroses, the Southern Ocean 

 from 30° S. lat. to 50° S. lat. constitutes the general range of this 

 bird. It has not been met with in the extreme Antarctic regions 

 but often wanders north of its usual boundary. 



