YELLOW-NOSED ALBATROSS 53 
YELLOW-NOSED ALBATROSS 
Nealbatrus chlororhynchus bassi 
I HAVE only once met with this bird in the vicinity 
of Geelong, and that was a mile or two out from 
shore off Torquay, on May 19th, 1912. Mr. Hugh 
Riordan and I were going round the crayfish pots 
with two fishermen, the boat tossing up and down 
in what seemed to us an exceedingly rough sea, 
though, as I remember, the men said it was merely a 
"poggle," whatever that may mean. Half a dozen 
Shy Albatrosses had followed for some time the 
barracoutta lines which trailed behind from the 
stern ; but once having identified that species for 
certain, we felt stealing over us a strange loss of 
interest in everything except the prospect of getting 
back to solid unoscillating land. 
Then suddenly from somewhere in the south-west 
came up a single stately bird, wheeling over the 
grey-green waves, and as we saw the black bill with 
its clear ridge of yellow along the top, we hailed, 
with the pleasure only naturalists know, the appear- 
ance of a new species, and sea-sickness was forgotten. 
The back and top of wings were much darker than 
in the Shy Albatross, indeed practically black, the 
eye having, as it seemed, merely a small circular patch 
about it, not a long eyebrow " like the other bird. 
It did not follow the boat for long, nor associate with 
the other Albatrosses, but presently, after circling 
