107. DIOMEDEA ALBATRUS, Pall 



(STELLER'S ALBATROS.) 

 (Plate 92.) 



Tchaiki, Steller, Hist. Camtsch., p. 154 (1774). 



Albatros de la Chine, D'Aubent., PI. Enl., X., PI. 963 (1786). 



Diomedea albatrus, Pall., Spic. Zool., V., p. 28 (1769) ; id., Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat., II., 

 p. 308 (1831) ; Swinhoe, P. Z. S., 1871, p. 422 ; David and Oust., Ois. Chine, 

 p. 516 (1877) ; Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amer., II., 

 p. 351 (1884) ; Stejneger, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 29, pp. 88, 316 (1885) ; 

 Seebohm, Birds Japan. Emp., p. 261 (1890) ; Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 

 XXV., p. 444 (1896); Barrett-Hamilton, Ibis, 1900, pp. 279, 285, 1903, p. 320. 



Diomedea chinensis, Temm., Man. d'Orn., I., p. ex. (1820, ex D'Aubent.). 



Diomedea spadicea, var. /?. Lath., Ind. Orn., II., p. 790 (1790). 



Diomedea brachiura, Temm., PL Col., livr. 79 (1838) ; id., PI. Col. V., PI. 554 (1838). 



Diomedea brachyura, Temm., Introd., PI. Col., p. 103 (1838) ; Gould, Birds Austr., 

 VII., PI. 39 (1848) ; Giglioli, Faun. Vertebr. Oceano, p. 56 (1870). 



Diomedea derogata, Swinh., P. Z. S., 1873, p. 786 ; id., Ibis, 1874, p. 165, 1875, p. 140 ; 

 David and Oust., Ois. Chine, p. 516 (1877). 



D. regice similis, sed minor : plaga oleeranica magna alba ; sed cauda nigra, et capite 

 aurantiaco-fulvo distinguenda. 



This Albatros, which bears a certain resemblance to D. exulans, is distinguished by 

 the tawny-buff colour of the head and neck, which is a prominent feature in the adult 

 bird. It is, however, more closely allied to D. regia and D. chionoptera, in the 

 great extent of white on the wing, which forms a large olecranal patch, but differs 

 in its smaller size and entirely black tail, as well as in the golden-buff colour of 

 the head. 



The young bird is blackish-brown, and was mistaken by Seebohm for a dark 

 phase of the species : it is however now known that the dark birds are immature, 

 and although the series I have examined may not exhibit every intermediate stage 

 of plumage, there are in the British Museum sufficient specimens to prove the process 



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