262 TUBINARES. 



Pallas in the last century. It is a common species in the Japanese 

 Seas. There is an example in the British Museum collected by Mr. 

 Snow on Eturop, the most southerly of the Kurile Islands, and 

 several examples have been sent by Mr. Henson from Hakodadi 

 (Seebohm, Ibis, 1884, p. 176). There are two examples in the Pryer 

 collection from Tokio Bay, and Mr. Ringer has obtained it at 

 Nagasaki. 



It is generally found in company with an entirely dark form, which 

 is, on an average, slightly smaller, and has therefore been regarded 

 by many ornithologists as the young of Steller's Albatross. Other 

 ornithologists regard the dark form as specifically distinct. In the 

 ' Planches Enluminees' of D'Aubenton, plate 963 represents a brown 

 Albatross with pale bill and feet, under the title of L'Albatros de la 

 Chine. Upon this plate the name of Diomedea chinensis was founded 

 in 1820 (Temminck, Man. d'Orn. i. preface, p. ex) ; but its author 

 appeared to be dissatisfied with it, and in 1828 altered it to Diomedea 

 brachiura (Temminck, Planches Coloriees, Genus Diomedea, 75th 

 livraison) . It was afterwards rediscovered and redescribed under the 

 name of Diomedea derogata (Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 786). 

 This dark form, which may, for the sake of distinction, be called 

 Swinhoe's Albatross, is described by Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer as 

 the commoner bird on the coasts of Yezzo, whilst Steller^s Albatross 

 is represented as the .most abundant further south. In the Swinhoe 

 collection there is an example of the dark form obtained by Captain 

 Blakiston at Hakodadi in July (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1874, p. 165), and 

 there are two examples in the Pryer collection from Tokio Bay. 



It seems probable that these two forms represent a dimorphic 

 species like the Fulmar Petrel {Fulmarus glacialis), the Pomarine 

 Skua [Stercorarius pomarinus), Richardson's Skua {Stercorarius 

 richardsoni) , or the Reef-Heron {Ardea jugularis). I have never 

 seen any intermediate forms. 



Eggs in the Pryer collection from the Bonin Islands vary in size 

 from 47 by 2-9 inches to 4-3 by 3 inches; they are creamy white, 

 profusely speckled with russet at the large end, some of the spots 

 occasionally being larger. 



Although it is figured by Gould in his ' Birds of Australia,' it is 

 not known to have occurred in the Southern Hemisphere. It has 

 been recorded from Bering Sea, and appears to be confined to the 

 North Pacific Ocean, where it is common both on the Asiatic and 

 American coasts. 



