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DIO MEDEA CAUTA (Gould). 



SHY ALBATROS. Genus : Diomedea. 



THE distinctive characteristics of this bird are excessive timidity and caution, as it can rarely be 

 tempted to approach within shooting distance from the ship. Whilst numbers of other species of 

 Albatroses and other oceanic birds will daringly sweep around the ship, in utter disregard of the gun, 

 and swoop down upon any refuse thrown overboard from the vessel, this bird may be noticed on the far 

 outskirts of the flocks of his winged congeners, circling and wheeling in immense sweeps, but only alighting 

 on the water to secure any chance morsel that may have escaped the observation of his hardier brethren 

 when he is far astern of the ship and out of all possible danger from man. 



Only inferior in size to the great Wandering Albatros, and in speed and beauty of evolution, 

 when on the wing, to the Sooty Albatros, this bird, by his marked capacity for sustained and graceful 

 sailing flight, at once excites the attention and profound admiration of the voyager. 



The breeding places of this species in the southern seas are doubtless somewhere in the high 

 latitudes, as they have been seen in great abundance by the captains of whaling ships about Bounty and 

 Antipodes Islands, two bleak and inhospitable spots six hundred miles from the coast of the Middle 

 Island of New Zealand. 



There is but little difference between the sexes in colour when fully grown; the female, however, 

 can always be singled out by her comparative diminutiveness, and the young by the bill being of an 

 uniform grey. 



Crown of the head, back of the neck, throat, all the under surface and rump, grey-white ; 

 before and behind the eye a mark of greyish-black, gradually passing into a delicate pearl-grey, which 

 extends over the face ; back, a rich pearl-grey, deepening on the wings and tail into brown ; bill, a light 

 grey or bluish horn-colour, except on the culmen, where it is yellow, darkening at the tips of the 

 mandibles ; the upper mandible at the base surrounded by a narrow line of black ; the base of the 

 lower mandible surrounded by a belt of rich orange ; feet, bluish-white. 



Length, 31 inches ; bill, 4^ inches ; wing, 21^ inches ; tail, 9 inches ; tarsi, 3 inches. 



Habitats : Abundant about the southern coast of Tasmania, especially so in the vicinity of 

 D'Entrecasteaux's Channel ; the Auckland, Campbell, Bounty and Antipodes Islands appear, however, 

 to be more favoured localities, doubtless from their lonely situation in the southern ocean affording 

 better facilities for nidification ; the species is also occasionally met with in the warm latitudes of the 

 South Seas. 



