110. DIOMEDEA IMMUTABILIS, Rothschild. 



(LAYS AN ALBATROS.) 

 (Plate 96.) 



Diomedea an exulans ? KittL, Mus. Senckenb., L, p. 120 (1834). 



Diomedea brachyura, (nee Temm.), Peale, U. S. Expl. Exped., pp. 290, 337 (1848) ; 

 Cass., U. S. Expl. Exped., pp. 398, 451 (1858). 



Diomedea melanophrys (nee Boie), Bean, P. U. S. Nat. Mus., V., pp. 170, 172 (1882). 



Diomedea immutabilis, Rothschild, Bull. B. 0. C, I., p. xlviii. (1893) ; id., Ibis, 

 1893, p. 448, 1894, p. 548 ; id., Avif. Laysan, I., p. 57, Pis. 33-39 (1893) ; 

 id., Bull. B. O. C, III, p. xlvii. (1894) ; Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 

 XXV., p. 446 (1896) ; Anthony, Auk, XV., p. 38 (1898), XVI., p. 99 (1899) ; 

 Scott Wilson and Evans, Aves Hawaiienses, p. 217 (1899) ; Rothschild, 

 Avif. Laysan, III., p. 292 (1900) ; Bryan, Key to the Birds Hawaiian 

 Group, p. 10 (1901); id., Occ. Papers Bernice Pauahi Mus., Honolulu, 

 XL, p. 106 (1903) ; Fisher, Auk, XXL, p. 8, Pis. 2-8 (1904) ; id., BuU. 

 U. S. Fish Comm., XXIIL, pt. 3, p. 786 (1906). 



D. minor : supra brunneus ; uropygio et supracaudalibus albis : pedibus carneis : 

 rostro flavicante ; pileo albo, collo et gastraeo toto albis : cauda brunnea, dorso 

 concolori. 



This species, when first observed by von Kittlitz on the islands of Gardner, Moller, 

 and Lisiansky, was mistaken by him for D. exulans: it was probably the Albatros 

 seen by Dr. Pickering during the United States Exploring Expedition of 1844, and 

 recorded as very abundant in the seas north of the Sandwich Islands. In his 

 " Avifauna of Laysan," the Hon. Walter Rothschild says that on the shoals of French 

 Frigate Island only a few of these birds were seen, while on Laysan they were 

 in such crowds that they almost touched each other, and on Lisiansky they were 

 also numerous. 



Mr. Bryan's story of the " Gonies " on Marcus Island is one of extinction, 

 for though so abundant at one time, that three hundred might be killed 



336 



