Oedee TTJBINAEES.] 
[Fam. PEOCELLARTID^. 
DIOMEDEA CULMINATA. 
(GREY-HEADED ALBATEOS.) 
Biomedea chlororhynclios, Aud. Orn. Biogr. v. p. 326 (1839, nec Gm.). 
Diomedea culminata, Gould, Ann. N. Hist. xiii. p. 361 (1844). 
Ad. similis D. chlororhynchce, sed pileo colloque totis pulchre cinereo lavatis : culmine et gonyde sordide flavis : 
pedibus flavicanti-albis. 
Juv. similis adulto, sed pileo colloque saturatids cinereis : rostro nigro, culmine medialiter flavicaute et gonyde 
obscure corned. 
Adult. Plumage similar to that of D. chlororhtjncha, but having the whole of the head and neck washed with 
delicate slaty grey, and the feathers of the back and mantle more or less margined with hrown. Bill hlack, 
with the ridge of the upper mandible, and the lower edges of the under mandible, to the junction of the 
crura, dull yellow; legs and feet yellowish white. Total length 31'5 inches; wing, from flexure, 20; tail 
7'5; hill, along the ridge 5, from the gape to the extremity of lower mandible 4’75 ; tarsus 3'25; middle 
toe and claw 4' 75. 
Young. Has the head and neck dark grey ; the space between the upper mandible and the eyes, as well as a 
mark above the latter, of a deeper shade ; beneath the posterior side of the lower eyelid a light grey mark ; 
the cheeks whitish ; bill black, with indications of yellow in the middle portion of its ridge, and with the 
outer edges of the lower mandible horn-coloured towards the base; legs and feet yellowish white. 
Obs. A specimen from Blueskin Bay, in the Otago Museum (sex ^ ), is an exceptionally handsome bird, the 
delicate shading of French grey on the head and neck being really exquisite. There is another specimen 
in the Otago Museum in which the head and entire neck are dark grey, changing to white on the cheeks, 
and deepening into sooty brown on the shoulders and mantle; upper surface of wings sooty black; tail sooty 
grey with white shafts ; breast and sides more or less marked and washed with grey ; rump and abdomen 
pure white. 
In the Canterbury Museum there is a young bird of this species, which was picked up on the ocean- 
beach somewhere between the mouths of the Avon and Waimakariri rivers, and another, in adult 
plumage, more recently presented by Mr. Hugh O’Neill. My description of the youthful state is 
taken from the first-named specimen, and that of the adult from a very fine example in the British 
Museum. Mr. Gould writes : — “ I frequently observed it between Sydney and the northern extremity 
of New Zealand ; and it also occurred in the same latitude of the Indian Ocean as abundantly as any of 
its congeners. It is a powerful bird, and directly intermediate in size between Diomedea caiita and 
D. chlororliyncJia. The specific differences of the three species are so apparent that I had no difficulty 
whatever in distinguishing them while on the wing. In D. clilororhyncha the bill is more compressed 
laterally, the culmen is round, and the yellow colouring terminates in an obtuse point midway between 
the nostrils and the base ; while in D. culminata the culmen is broad and flat, and has its greyish 
yellow colouring continued of the same breadth to the base ; the feet of the latter are also fully a 
third larger than those of the former. The habits, mode of life, and the kind of food partaken of by 
the D. culminata are so precisely similar to those of its congeners that a separate description would 
be a mere repetition of what has already been said respecting the preceding species. 
VOL. II. .2d 
