EAST AUSTRALIAN YELLOW-NOSED MOLLYMAWK. 
Rothschild Museum there is a female procured on Tristan d’Acunha, and it agrees 
very closely with Latham’s description of his Yellow-nosed Albatros, save that 
the bill-coloration is not so pronounced; in this feature it approaches Verrill’s 
bird, the transverse bar being reddish-yellow and rather indistinct. Moreover 
the culmen-coloration is greener and the unguis darker, not so bright a yellow 
as is seen in Australian specimens. 
I would therefore suggest that the first plumage of D. cTilororJiynchos and 
its subspecies resembles the adult plumage in all save the bill-coloration which 
gradually changes from all black on the culmen, to yellow, more or less bright, 
and in doing so passes through green and orange tints. If this be conceded 
D. chlororJiynchos can be retained for the South Atlantic breeding birds, and for 
the present Th. eximius should be treated as a synonym. If several subspecies 
are later found to breed in the South Atlantic, Verrill’s name may be revived 
for the Gough Island bird. 
In the Rep. “ Southern Cross^'' where the bird-notes in Nikolai Hanson’s 
private diary are re-printed, all the “ Mollymawks with black bills ” are noted 
by Sharpe as “ Thalassogeron culminatusP as the skins received are referable 
to that species. It is quite possible that some of the birds seen and noted by 
Nikolai Hanson belonged to the present species. 
Wilson [National Antarct. Exp., Aves, p. 113, and note, 1907) also records 
the occurrence at sea of “ blackbiiled Albatroses,” but did not procure any. 
The various races of this bird that have been differentiated have been 
already noticed, but here appears to belong the bird described by Salvadori 
[Boll. Mus. Zool. Anat. comp. Torino, Vol. XXVI., No. 638, p. 2, 1911) as 
Thalassogeron desolationis and diagnosed thus : — 
Thalassogeron T. culminato valde affinis, sed major, culminicomu frontem non attin- 
gente, colore flavo culminicomu marginisque inferioris mandibulae obscuriore, unco rostri 
fusco, baud flavo vel rubro tincto ; capite et collo vix cinereo tinctis ; genis, capitis lateribus 
et gula albis, macula anteoculari nigricante magis conspicua. 
Desolation Island, Straits of Magellan. 
In the sjmonymy of D. chlororhynchos. Gray, from a study of Parkinson’s 
drawing, places D. profuga Banks, but this is an error. 
Herewith I append Solander’s description, and if Salvadori’ s name should 
refer to a subspecies of Th. chlororhynchos and not of Th. chrysostoma, Solander’s 
name would be available for the latter : — 
profuga Diomedea alls penatis, pedibusque a' quilibribus, rostro nigro supra & infra (iti\;erdum) 
pallido, mandibula' inferioris lateribus integris 
Fig. Piet. 
Habitat in Oceano Antarctico, a Terra del Fuego Austral! , Latit. austr. LVIII ; 
30 (Febr. 3, 1769) dein in oceano austral!, Latit. XL VIII: 27 (Febr. 15, 1769) 
Rostrum compressum, la’ve, (latius quam in Diomedea antarctica Mscr) diametro 
longitudinal! 3| transversalem superante 
VOL. II. 
285 
