Order PEOCELLAEIIFORMES.l 



[Family DIOMEDEID^. 



DIOMEDEA CAUTA. 



(SHY ALBATROS.) 



Diomedea cauta, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, part viii., p. 177 (1840). 



I have in my collection undoubted specimens of Diomedea cauta, from the Bounty Islands, 

 and the species must therefore be retained on our list. 



Mr. Eothschild writes to me : " There certainly may be a remote possibility of Thalassogeron 

 salvini being one sex of what Hutton and the Australian ornithologists call T. cautus, for the 

 last pair sent by you to me as T. salvini were certainly ? T. salvini and S T. cautus (?). I know 

 that the two types of Gould's Diomedea cauta in the British Museum are not the same as the 

 bird which now goes under the name of D. cauta, and certainly in Le Souef's glorious photographs 

 of the breeding haunts of these so-called D. cauta, the females on their nests have all snow- 

 white heads. But I also know that Salvin was most careful over these, and I shall want a lot 

 of evidence before I can admit that the so-called T. cautus is the female of T. salvini. The 

 last-named species was founded on nine specimens in my collection." 



Writing to me on Feb. 4th, 1901, Captain Hutton says : " I have just returned from a most 

 enjoyable trip round the Southern Island with Lord Banfurly. He made the most complete 

 collection of these birds that — I suppose — has ever been made, and they are now on their way to 

 the British Museum in the ' Gothic.' What will specially interest you is, that you must retain 

 Thalassogeron cautus in our fauna. I got it at the Bounty Islands, where it breeds, and is very 

 common. One specimen of T. salvini is said to have come from Antipodes, but Captain 

 Bollons says that there are no Mollymawks there, and I suspect that it may have come from 

 the Bounty Islands." 



Captain Hutton writes to me later on : " I do not feel quite sure about Thalassogeron cautus 

 at the Bounties. Certainly on these islands there are some birds with stout bills and others with 

 more slender ones, and I think that these are S and ? . But they have the same colours generally 

 that are typical of T. salvini. In a few the head and neck are nearly white — which is character- 

 istic of T. cautus. If T. cautus and T. salvini are distinct, they must be characterised by 

 the colour of the head and neck only ; the bill will not do. Not having seen any Tasmanian 

 specimens of T. cautus, I cannot make up my mind whether the Bounty Island species is 

 T. salvini or T. cautus. Probably you can decide this in the British Museum." 



I find the following reference to this bird in my diary for 1893 : — 



March 2nd.— When about 1,060 miles from port (lat. 50° 31' S., long. 163° 14' W.) a Shy Albatros 

 {Diomedea cauta) put in an appearance, and after performing one or two wide circuits, often rising high in 

 the air, with a very angular disposition of the wings, vanished in the midst of the ocean and was seen no more. 



I examined what was said to be the true type of Gould's Diomedea cauta, in the Museum 

 at Philadelphia, and I arrived at the same conclusion as Mr. Eothschild. 



Mr. Gould states that, when fully adult, the sexes differ but little in colour; but that the 

 female may always be distinguished by her smaller size, and the young by the bill being clouded 

 with dark grey. 



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