THE BLACK-BROWED ALBATROSS. 113 
The same remarks exactly apply to the next few days, until, on January 2nd, 
we sighted ice. On that morning we had five birds of phase 1 with us, and one of 
phase 3. After this we lost them entirely. 
On our homeward voyage, from McMurdo Sound to the Auckland Islands, we first 
encountered them, six or eight together, and all of phase 2, on February 29, 1904 
(67° 30’ §., 174° E.). We saw them in gradually increasing numbers, always of 
the same phase, from March 1st to March 14th. During this fortnight we saw probably 
over a hundred birds, and all were of phase 2, except one, which was of phase 4. 
While anchored in Port Ross in the Auckland Islands we saw them out at sea, 
but they never came into the harbour. Between New Zealand and the Straits of 
Magellan, to our surprise, we saw not a single example of the bird. It appeared 
again, however, on the day that we sighted South America, and in the Straits we saw 
many hundreds sitting in large companies on the water. On the Atlantic side between 
Punta Arenas and the Falkland Islands we occasionally saw one or two of the typical 
adults, the last on July 27th, when D. melanophrys disappeared entirely, and its place 
was taken by a form we had before this hardly seen at all-—a bird in every respect the 
same in shape and size as D. melanophrys, but with a grey ring always round the 
neck and the bill always quite black.* 
Diomedea melanophrys wanders over all the southern oceans, and occasionally has 
made its appearance far in the North Atlantic. Of its seasonal migrations very 
little appears to be known, but even our own limited observations seem to show that 
they have definite movements at certain seasons. No mere weather changes can 
account for their congregation in the Straits in mid-winter, neither can accident only 
account for our having met only the fully adult form in the ice in autumn. 
THALASSOGERON CULMINATUS. 
The Grey-headed Albatross. 
Diomedea culminatus, Gould, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. xii. (1844), p. 361. 
Thalassogeron culminatus, Baird, Brew., and Ridgw., Water Birds N. Amer. il. (1884), p. 358; Sharpe, 
Rep. ‘Southern Cross’ Coll. (1902), p. 162, ibeque citata. 
MATERIAL IN THE ‘ DISCOVERY’S’ COLLECTION. 
No. 6, ad. skin, 9. Dec. 29,1901. 56° 54'S. 170° E. 
* This bird appears to agree with the “ Mollymawk” (Thalassogeron sp. inc.), mentioned by Mr. Eagle 
Clarke amongst the birds of Gough Island (op. cit., p. 265). Those that we saw were evidently adult. They had 
the bill entirely black, and the head white, shading on the occiput, or sometimes on the hind neck, into grey 
which deepened round the sides of the neck to form a well-marked grey collar, incomplete upon the fore neck. 
The feet were rosy pink. In other respects, as in size, the bird closely resembled D. melanophrys. We saw it 
several times in March, from 55° S. lat. northwards as we came up to the Auckland Islands from Wilkes’ Land. 
We saw nothing of it in the South Pacific; but in July we found it again in the South Atlantic, between 30° and 
40° §. lat. as we came north from the Falkland Islands in 1904. 
