506 PKOCELLAKIID^ PHCEBETRIA 



short of the central ones by about the length of the tarsus ; tarsus 

 considerably shorter than the middle toe ; hind toe present but very 

 minute, represented externally by a rudimentary claw. 



Only one species of this genus is recognised by Salvin; but 

 it is probable that P. cornicoides, Hutton, distinguished by its blue 

 mandibular stripe, grey back and breast and smaller size, is distinct. 



808. Phoebetria fuliginosa. Sooty Alhatros. 



Diomedea fuligiiiosa, Gvid. Sijst. Nat. i,p. 568 (1788) ; Gould, B. Austr. 



vii, pi. 44 (1848) ; Layard, Ibis, 1862, p. 95, 1867, p. 458 ; id. B. S. 



Afr. p. 365 (1867) ; S2>erUng,Ibis, 1868, p. 295 ; Sharpc, ed. Layard' s 



B. S. Afr. p. 773 (1884) ; Green, Ocean Bds. p. 14, pi. iii, fig. 6 (1887) ; 



Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 169 (1896) ; Clmn, Aus den Ticfeii Welfm. pp. 



177, 178, 220, with figures (1900). 

 Phcebetria fuliginosa, Salvin, Cat. B. M. xxv, p. 453 (1896) ; Beichenoiv, 



Vog. Afr. i, p. 23 (1900). 

 " Blue Bird," " Piv," or " Piew," and " Stinkpot '' are all names applied to 



this bird by sailors and sealers. 



Description. Adult. — General colour sooty brown throughout, 

 a little paler in the middle of the back and below and darker on the 

 wings and front of the face ; a ring of short stumpy white feathers, 

 broken in front, round the eye ; tail long and wedge-shaped with 

 white shafts to the feathers. 



Iris dark brown ; eyelids white ; bill black, the lower mandible 

 with a marked groove along the greater part of its length which is 

 bright orange ; legs and feet dark hazel. 



Length about 33-0 ; wing 20'5 ; tail central feathers 9'5 ; lateral 

 feathers 6-25 ; culmen 5-0 ; tarsus 2-80 ; middle toe 4-10. 



Some birds, presumably young ones, have the nape of the neck 

 white. A nestling is covered with slate-coloured down ; the bill is 

 slaty-black, the iris faint hazel and the pupil blue ; the legs are also 

 bluish. 



Distribution. — The range of the Sooty Albatros is- very similar 

 to that of the others, except that it has been met with on the 

 margins of the Ice Pack further south. It does not usually wander 

 north of the thirtieth parallel, but south of this it is fairly abundant 

 throughout the Southern Ocean. It is known to breed on Ker- 

 guelen, the Crozet Islands and Tristan. 



Though seldom visiting our coast and harbours the Sooty Alba- 

 tross is not uncommon a short distance away out at sea. There is 



