AVIFAUNA Or LATSAN. 



57 



27. DIOMEDEA IMMUTABILIS, Rothsch. 



GOONEY. 



Diomedea (an exulans?), Kittl. Mus. Senckenb. i. p. 120 (1834) (Gardner, Moller, and Lisiansky). 

 Diomedea immutabilis, Rothsch. Bull. B. O. C. no. ix. p. xlviii (June 1893). 



Adult. Head, neck, lower rump, and entire under surface pnrc 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. 



Sexes entirely similar. "Bill grey, darker at base, tip blackish brown, base of under 

 mandible pale yellow; iris Brown; tarsi and feet fleshy pink." Total length about 

 32 inches, wing 18-0 to 19, bill 1, tarsus 3% middle toe with claw 4'3. 



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. 

 Palmer did not send me eggs, as the time to get them was over. 



On Lisiansky two young albino Albatrosses of this species were found. They are white 

 throughout, wings and tail of a delicate pearl-grey (the tail in one more brownish) ; the 

 Back pale grey ; feet pale flesh-colour. The down, which is still visihle in some parts of 

 the birds, is pure white. 



Tins Albatross, of which a few only were seen on French Frigate Shoals, literally covers the 

 island of Laysan, the young in some places being as thick as they could stand. It is also 

 fairly numerous on Lisiansky. It is very curious to watch the love-making antics of these 

 birds : first they stand face to face, then they begin nodding and bowing vigorously, then rub 

 their bills together with a whistling cry; after this they begin shaking their heads and 

 snapping their bilis with marvellous rapidity, occasionally lifting one wing, straightening 

 Themselves out and blowing out their breasts; then they put their bill under the wing or toss 

 it in the air with a groaning scream, and walk round each other, often for fifteen minutes 

 at the time. 



They are quite fearless, and do not move out of the way. When Mr. Freeth was going 

 to the guano-fields on his tramway-line lie had to send a boy ahead to clear the track of the 



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