EAST AUSTRALIAN YELLOW-NOSED MOLLYMAWK. 
This name has been used for a species of Mollymawk with very well-marked 
characters. Gould separated a form, which had been confused with it, as 
D. cuhninata. Recently, study of Forster’s Monograph of the Alhatroses, brought 
to hght by Mr. C. Davies Sherborn, enabled me to state that D. chrysostoma 
Forster, 1785, was applicable to the bird Gould re-named, though D. chry- 
sosto7na Forster, 1844, had been commonly (and correctly) referred to the 
S 3 Tionymy of the bird known as D. chlororhynchos Gmelin. Investigation 
into this matter showed that Forster had confused both birds under the name 
of D. ehrysostoma, but in his Monograph he carefully described one only, 
while in the Descr. Anim. the other one was detailed. 
This is proven by examination of George Forster’s drawings preserved 
in the British Museum, where drawing No. 100 is a haK finished painting of 
the bird commonly known as D. chlororhynchos Gmelin. On one corner is 
written in pencil, “ Irides brown. Under eyelid white. Head dark, nearly 
grey, gradually and very softly vanishing into a fine clear white on the neck. 
A more dark grey spot over the eye. The middle of the Back black gradually 
turning into pearly grey and then into white towards the Neck, but abruptly 
bounded by white on the Uropygium end. Feet pale greyish white.” The 
details are in two different handwritings, and it is now difficult to trace the 
authority. 
Drawing No. 101 is an unfinished pencil-sketch with no explanatory 
remarks. The bill is shaded so as to show the pale coloration of the mandible 
interrupted on the unguis, the pale lower margin of the under mandible and also 
the pale streak at the base of the lower mandible ; the head and neck are all 
shaded dark. This is undoubtedly the bird known as D. cuhninata and the one 
described as D. chrysostoina by J. R. Forster in 1785. 
Criticism of Latham’s description appeared to show that he had also 
confused both species — as “ head grey, hind part of the neck dusky,” was not 
true of the Australian bird known as D. chlororhynchos Gmeiin. I therefore 
{Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 206, 1912) named the Australian form Diomedea 
bassi, and quoted D. chlororhynchos Gmelin as a synonym of D. chrysostoma 
Forster, and noted that Latham’s description apparently was based on both 
forms. 
Recent fuller study points to a different conclusion. It will be noted 
that Latham’s description coincides quite closely with the wordipg on 
drawing No. 100 of George Forster, and that specimen from which the drawing 
was made was procured off the Cape of Good Hope. A bird breeding on 
Nightingale Island and called D. cuhninata is thus described by Moseley {Notes 
by a Naturalist, 2nd ed., p. 112, 1892) : “ The Mollymawk is an albatross 
about the size of a goose, head, throat and under part pure white, the wings 
283 
