PROCELLARIIDA: DIOMEDEINZ: ALBATROSSES. TT5 
than half the wing (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 Phebastria. 
Analysis of Species. 
a 
Adult white, with dark wings and tail; billand feet light . ... . 8 Be BOS ee brachyura 810 
Adult fuliginous; billandfeetdark .  . 2. 1 1 ee ee ee ee nigripes 811 
310. D. brachyu’ra. (Gr. Bpayis, brachus, short; ovpa, oura, tail.) SHORT-TAILED ALBATROSS. 
Bill 5.00 or 6.00 inches long, with moderately concave culmen and prominent hook. Frontal 
feathers forming almost no reéntrance on culmen, running nearly straight, around whole base 
of upper mandible, and extending scarcely farther on sides of under mandible, with 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 inches. Adult plumage white, the head and neck usu- 
ally washed with shining rusty-yellow; wings and tail dark or blackish, with a wholly 
indeterminate amount of white on the coverts and inner quills — sometimes nearly all the 
wing-coverts white excepting a line along the border of the fore-arm — sometimes the white 
restricted to a small space at the elbow. Bill pale reddish-yellow, 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 (never 5.00) inches long, extremely stout, with the culmen almost perfectly straight 
to the hook, which is comparatively small and weak, scarcely rising above level of the culmen. 
The horny piece forming 
the culmen very broad, 
especially at base, where 
it widens and descends to 
overlap the lateral piece. 
Outline of feathers much 
as in brachyura, yet a 
slight reéntrance on fore- 
head, and feathers on sides 
of under mandible salient 
with a slight convexity. 
Commissure about straight 
to the hook. Bill about 
one-third 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 
wing. Bill dark-colored; feet black. Plumage dark chocolate-brown, paler 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 3.50; ditto lower mandible 3.20 ; 
-~ 
Fic. 523. — Sooty Albatross, mnch reduced. (From Tenney, after Audubon.) 
