AUSTRALIAN WANDERING ALBATROS. 
supposed to be albatrosses. Mewstone Island would be a difficult place to 
land on.” 
It has been recorded as breeding on the Chatham Islands, New Zealand, 
as well as on Antipodes Island and Auckland Islands. The many races, 
probably restricted to their own breeding-locality, would be responsible for the 
varied accounts of the bare eyelid coloration, and may also account for the 
discrepant plumage-changes apparent in the study of this bird. 
First, as to the eyelid coloration, Wilson gave it for a Cape bird as bright 
scarlet, while N. Hanson noted it as blue-grey. I have spoken of the latter 
record as being apparently a lapse, and I find all the Cape skins to have dull 
yellowish eyelids, which would agree with Wilson’s observation. All the New 
Zealand specimens have dark eyelids, such as might, in life, have been greenish- 
purple, as BuUer described. Gould considered his specimens to have had 
the eyelid “ of a pale green colour ” — may these have been the “ Mewstone ” 
specimens ? ” I do not see the eyelid coloration of D. chionoptem yet described. 
Two specimens supposed to have been killed in the South Indian Ocean at sea 
differ in their eyelid coloration, one inclining to the orange (in the skin) of the 
Cape birds, the other dark like the New Zealand ones. From the specimens 
before me I suggest that the eyelid coloration will be found serviceable in 
differentiating the races, as it appears to be a constant character. 
Now, to note the diverse plumage-changes. The general routine which 
can be guessed that these birds would follow, has been outlined in the Monograph 
of the Petrels. Study of specimens at once shows disparity, and examination 
of data proves that the birds come from different localities. Thus, two birds 
in apparently the same state of fairly adult-plumage, differ in that one has 
a pale-coloured bill, such as is associated with an adult, while the other has a 
dark-coloured bill, such as is seen in the immature. The obvious conclusion 
is negatived by the examination of birds which have not reached the white- 
headed adult stage, but which possess pure pale-coloured (adult) bills. The 
explanation of such anomafies seems to be in the fact that we are dealing with 
different races which do not pass through exactly the same plumage-stages. 
The bird I have described as D. e. rothschildi differs from the Tristan 
d’Acunha breeding form, in its larger size throughout and in the coloration 
of its eyelids. 
Tentatively I would use the following nomenclature as represeri^ing the 
facts as at present known : — 
Diofnedea exulans exulans Linne, South Atlantic Ocean (Tristan d’Acunha 
breeding). 
Dio7nedea exulans chionoptera Salvin, South Indian Ocean (Kerguelen 
Island breeding). 
VOL. II. 
253 
