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DIOMEDEA IMMUTABXLIS. 



Diomedea (an exulans?), Kittlitz, Mus. Senckenb. i. p. 120 (1834?) (nee Linn.). 



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



Exped. p. 398 (1858) ; Dole, Haw. Alman. 1879, p. 57 {nee Temminck). 

 Diomedea melanophrys, Bean, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. v. pp. 170, 173 (1882) ? (nee Boie, apud 



Temminck) . 

 Diomedea immulabilis, Rothschild, Bull. Br. Orn. Club, i. p. xlviii (1893) ; id. Ibis, 1893, p. 448, 



and 1894, p. 548; id. Avif. Laysan, p. 57, pis. (1893); Salvm, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxv. 



p. 446. 



As will be seen from the synonymy, Mr. Rothschild was the first author to distinguish 

 this species from Diomedea exulans and D. brachyura. He received specimens from 

 his collector Palmer, who found it in immense numbers on Laysan, and in fair quantity 

 on Lisiansky, while he observed a few individuals on French Frigate Shoals and near 

 Niihau. Mr. Dole had previously recorded it, under the name of D. brachyura, as 

 " common about the Hawaiian Islands," and a specimen killed by Bailleu on Hawaii 

 is, according to Mr. Rothschild, in the Paris Museum. No evidence of its breeding in 

 the group is as yet forthcoming. Numerous specimens were collected by the United 

 States Exploring Expedition, and in the accounts of that voyage the bird was stated to 

 be " particularly abundant at sea north of the Sandwich Islands." 



Description. — Adult male and female. " Head, neck, lower rump, and entire under 

 surface pure white ; space in front of the eye sooty black ; wings and wing-coverts 

 blackish brown ; interscapular region, back, and upper part of rump paler and more 

 smoky brown ; tail black, fading into white at base ; under wing-coverts mixed blackish 

 brown and white." 



" The first plumage of the young (which is dark in most Albatrosses) is similar to 

 that of the adult bird ; the breast and entire underparts pure white." 



" The nestling is covered with brown down ; its bill is blackish brown, and its iris 

 brown also." (Rothschild.) 



Dimensions. — "Total length about 32 inches, wing 18-6-19. bill 4, tarsus 3-2, 

 middle toe with claw 4/3 " (Rothschild). 



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