^ THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
the bill is deep orange-coloured, with the ungues pale horn ; in the adults the 
bill is yellow. It seems, also, that the albinos are rather smaller than the 
normal birds, which is what we would expect in albinism. 
This form should bear the name 
Macronectes giganteus albus, 
as Potts described {loc. cit.) a white bird from Foveaux Strait as Ossifraga alba, 
and I would expect the bird noticed by Gould thus : “ On visiting Recherche 
Bay in D’Entrecasteaux’s Channel, Tasmania, I found thousands of this species 
sitting together on the water and feeding on the blubber and other refuse of 
the whaling station,” to be referable to this subspecies. In the British 
Museum is a specimen from Norfolk Island, which is a dark young bird 
of the year, and undoubtedly a wanderer from the South, and agreeing 
with this form. 
I have noted the following extract in Buller {Suppl, Vol. I., p. 121, 1905) : 
“Mr. Napier Bell, the well-known Civil Engineer, in a letter from Perth, 
Western Australia, says ; ‘ Two islands here are the home of the Giant Petrel. 
This bird is as large as a Goose, and of a dark slate-colour. I saw one which 
flew on board one of the dredgers at Fremantle and dropped into the hopper, 
which is a great compartment where the dredger deposits its dredging ; but 
as this dredge is worked by suction from pipes laid to the shore, the hopper 
is unused and full of water. The bird has lived there quite contentedly for a 
month, and refuses to leave the hopper. It is fed every day, swims about 
in the water, and roosts in the iron girders.’ ” 
This is most interesting, as it implies that we have a form of M. giganteus 
breeding in West Australia. If so, why should not a form also breed in the 
east, and therefore explain the “ thousands ” seen by Gould. How little we do 
know regarding the Petrels breeding in the islands to the south of Australia 
seems certain from such a note as this. 
There still remains the Antarctic form met with by Wilson in the Ross Sea, 
etc. I have very carefully examined all the specimens at hand, and find that 
this is a larger bird throughout, and apparently becoming a fixed white phase. 
The oldest birds are pure white, and the youngest are the darkest coloured ; but 
the latter are much lighter than the lightest coloured northern birds, where also 
the youngest are darkest. Of this form Wilson noted that the bill was pale 
yellowish horn-colour and the legs and feet grey. It would be noted that 
regarding the “ Discovery ” birds which Wilson tabulated, all the white birds 
were larger than the dark, but that the measurements of one dark one 
almost equalled the white ones in length of bill. I find that this is 
a northern bird, procured at the Auckland Islands, and consequently 
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