MONOGRAPH OF THE PETRELS. 



Oates (Cat. Eggs Brit. Mus., I., p. 162) ; they measure 5.0 to 5.4 inches by 2.9 to 3.3, 

 and were similar in form and colour to those of Phcebetria fuliginosa. 



The late C. J. Andersson (Ibis, 1866, p. 324) spoke to the master of a sealing- 

 vessel, respecting the nesting of the Albatroses, and he affirmed that the nestlings 

 subsisted on their own fat when abandoned by their parents. The birds were 

 often hatched out in situations where it would have been impossible for them to 

 get to the sea before they were fully fledged. Layard, however, says that this 

 statement was derided by the sealers whom he consulted ; they laughed at the idea 

 that the young birds remained without food, and declared that the old Albatroses 

 fed their young all the time they were in the nest with squids : the young remained 

 there until driven away by the old birds when they wanted the nest again. They 

 grow very slowly, but are very fat, and not at all fishy to the taste (Layard, Ibis, 

 1867, p. 461). 



Adult Male. General colour above, including the head and sides of face, the 

 entire neck, mantle and scapulars, pure white ; the outermost scapulars sparsely 

 vermiculated and the hindermost with a large black patch at the tips ; lower back, 

 rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail-feathers white ; parapteral feathers white, with a 

 long oval patch of black on the distal half of the outer web ; coverts along the edge 

 of the wing pure white ; remainder of the wing-coverts mottled with black and white, 

 the feathers being mostly slaty-black, with white margins, the inner webs for the most 

 part white, with a little zigzag vermiculation ; the inner median and greater coverts 

 pure white, like the adjacent inner secondaries ; bastard- wing black, with white on 

 the inner webs ; quills black, with yellow shafts ; secondaries white, with black on 

 the outer webs, the innermost secondaries pure white ; entire under-surface, including 

 the under tail-coverts, axillaries, and under wing-coverts, also pure white ; the edge 

 of the wing slightly mottled with black ; quills below mostly pure white, the primaries 

 black, except towards the base, the secondaries white, black towards the tips. Total 

 length, 45.5 inches ; culmen, 6.6 ; wing, 25.0 ; tail, 10.0 ; tarsus, 4.85 ; middle toe 

 and claw, 6.8. 



Slight variation in plumage may be seen in the series in the British Museum. I 

 have described Salvin's type from Kerguelen Island, but the specimen obtained by the 

 " Challenger " Expedition, on Marion Island, differs in having slight vermiculations 

 on a few of the mantle-feathers, while some of the scapulars and parapteral 

 plumes are strongly vermiculated ; the tail is not pure white, as it has a spot 

 of black on each of the centre feathers, and some of the others are irregularly 

 vermiculated with black. The white area of the wing is not continuous as in the 

 type, the marginal coverts being black, with white edges and white bases, so that the 

 whole of the wing is mottled with black and white, excepting as regards the inner 

 series of coverts which are white with black spots or zigzag vermiculations; the 



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