121. PHCEBETRIA FULIGINOSA (Gm.). 



(SOOTY ALBATROS.) 

 (Plate 103.) 



Great Black Petrel, Lath., Gen. Syn., Suppl. II., p. 333 (1801). 



Diomedea fuliginosa, Gmel., Syst. Nat., I., p. 568 (1788) ; Temm., PI. Col., 469 (1829) ; 

 Gray, Gen. Birds, in., p. 650 (1844) ; id., Ibis, 1862, p. 247 ; Gould, Birds 

 Austr., VII., PI. 44 (1848) ; Hutton, Ibis, 1865, p. 284, 1867, p. 186 ; Buller, 

 Birds N. Zeal., p. 296 ; id., Ed. 2, II., p. 205 ; Sharpe, Phil. Trans., 

 clxviii., p. 148 (1879). 



Diomedea spadicea, Less., Man. d'Orn., II., p. 391, (1828). 



Diomedea fusca, Audub., Orn. Biogr., V., p. 116 (1839). 



Diomedea palpebrata, Forster, Descr. Anim., p. 55 (1844). 



Phcebetria fuliginosa, Reich., Syst. Av. Longip., p. v. (1852) ; Gould, Handb. Birds 

 Austr., IL, p. 441 (1865) ; Giglioli, Faun. Vertebr. Oceano, p. 60; Kidder, Bull. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 3, p. 12 (1876) ; Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXV., 

 p. 453 (1896) ; Hall, Ibis, 1900, p. 18 ; Hutton, Ibis, 1903, p. 82 ; Buller, 

 Suppl. Birds N. Zeal., I., p. 155 ; Eagle Clarke, Ibis, 1905, pp. 267, 560 ; id., 

 1906, p. 177 ; id., 1907, pp. 342, 653. 



Capite et alis nigricantioribus ; area oculorum alba ; rostro nigro, mandibula inferiore 

 striga flavescente. 



Early writers recognised but a single species of the genus Phcebetria, and Salvin in 

 his Catalogue of the Tubinares in the British Museum followed them in this respect, 

 though he says that there are " individuals with a much greyer abdomen and back, 

 mingled with the ordinary form," and he adds, " if these birds can be traced to a 

 definite breeding place, where they alone are found, it would be well to assign them 

 specific rank." It had been previously observed that both dark and light birds 

 were frequently found together, but it was believed that the latter were the young in 

 immature plumage. Neither Gould nor Buller appear to have had any doubt on this 

 point, and the former, who both figures and describes the dark form in his fine work 

 on the "Birds of Australia," does not allude to the subject, nor does Buller speak of a 

 paler grey form. 



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