THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Son plumage est cendre mais tirant sur le brun ; la tete est de couleur de suie, eomme les 
pennes des ailes & de la queue, dont celles du milieu sont les plus longues, & dont les tiges 
sent blanches Les couvertures des ailes sont d’xme couleur brune noiratre, 
Le bee est long de quatre pouces & noir ; les pieds sont d’une couleur de cendre foncee, 
& les yeux d’un jaun e pale, & la paupiere d’en haut, avec la moitie de celle d’en bas, est 
blanche. 
Cette espece se trouve depuis le degre quarante-septieme de latitude australe jusqu’au 
soixante-onzieme & dix minutes, oti, avant nous, aucun vaisseau n’avoit jamais penetre. 
In the Ornith. Biogr.^ Vol. V., p. 116, 1839, Audubon described a Diomedea 
fusca. This name falls, of course, before the prior D. fusca of Hilsenberg, 1822, 
and it is moreover the same bird. 
In the Ibis ( 1867, p. 186) Hutton has written : “ There is a very 
distinct variety of this bird, which, from its resemblance to the Hooded 
Crow I have called var. cornicoides. It is quite as common as the normal 
form, but inhabits rather different localities. The neck, back and body are 
grey, with a broad black band round the beak ; and the white mark on the 
lower mandible is very small. It is of the same size as the true D. fuliginosa, 
and the wings and tail are the same ; but I have often fancied that 
its flight was not so graceful. We flrst saw this bird on April 14th in lat. 
36° 28' S., long. 2° 18' E., but it did not become common until May 5th 
in lat. 41° 9' S. and long 43° 7' E., from which date we saw from one to ten 
every day until June 6th in lat 37° 26' S. and long 163° 54' E., when they dis- 
appeared. They vary a good deal in colour, from almost white on the back 
of the neck and shoulders, through all intermediate grades, up to that of 
D. fuliginosa. They got more and more white as we sailed eastward as far as 
about 86° E., when they again got darker and darker until we left them.” Not 
much notice was taken of this variation until very recently, though Salvin 
{Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. XXV., p. 453, 1896) had mentioned it, and con- 
cluded : “If these birds (with a much greyer abdomen and back) can be traced 
to a definite breeding place, where they alone are found, it would be well to 
assign them specific rank.” 
Eagle Clarke {Ibis, 1905, 1906, 1907), dealing with the results of the 
Scottish Antarctic Expedition, showed that two very distinct forms were being 
confused : and giving them both specific rank, called the wholly -sooty one 
P. fuliginosa Gmelin, and the grey-mantled bird P. cornicoides Hutton. He 
apparently overlooked the fact that in the Descr. Ani7n (ed, Licht., 1844) 
Forster’s description of D. palpebrata absolutely referred to the light-backed 
form and would have priority over Hutton’s P. cornicoides. Lonnberg 
{Fauna South Georgia, p. 71, 1906) called the Grey-backed Sooty Albatros, 
P. fuliginosa cornicoides. 
In the Monograph of the Petrels (pp. 363-367, 1910), following Eagle Clarke, 
two species are admitted, P. fuliginosa Gmelin and P. cornicoides Hutton. 
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