Page:The birds of America, volume 7.djvu/274



The skin from which I made my drawing of this species was prepared by Mr. Townsend, who procured the bird near the mouth of the Columbia river. Of its habits or distribution I am entirely ignorant. Having failed in finding any figure or description of an Albatross agreeing entirely with it, I have been induced to consider it as new.

Dusky Albatross, Diomedea fusca, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 116. Adult— length, 34; wing, 21; tail, 11; bill, 4||.

OiFthe Columbia river.

Adult.

Bill longer than the head, nearly straight, stout, much compressed. Upper mandible with its dorsal outline straight and declinate until about one-third of its length, when it becomes a little concave, and along the unguis curves in the third of a circle, the ridge narrow, pointed at the base, separated in its whole length by a groove margined below by a prominent line from the sides, which are erect and convex, the edges sharp, the unguis decurved, strong, and sharp. Nostrils sub-basal, prominent, tubular, having a horny sheath, and placed rather nearer the ridge than the margin. Lower man- dible with the angle narrow, reaching to the tip, and having at its extremity a slender interposed process; the outline of the crura gently ascending, and nearly straight, towards the end a little deflected, the sides ascending and a little convex, with a groove in their ivhole length as far as the unguis, filled by a membrane, which is wider at the base, the edges sharp, the tip compressed, its upper edges decurved.

Head rather large; neck of moderate length, body full. Feet rather short, stoutish; tibia bare for an inch, covered all round with small angular scales; toes three, long, slender, the two outer a little shorter than the middle, the inner considerably shorter; they are covered above with small angular scales at the base, in the rest of their extent with scutella, and connected by emarginate webs, the outer and inner with an external membrane. Claws