Diomedea nigripes Audubon
Black-footed Albatross
Diomedea nigripes Audubon, Ornith. Biog., 5, 1839, p. 327. (Type locality, Pacific Ocean, lat. 30°44´N., long. 146°W.)
Diomedea fuliginosa Oustalet, Le Nat., 1889, p. 261 (Mariannes).
Diomedea nigripes Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris (3), 8, 1896, p. 51 (Agrigan); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 68 (Marianne); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus. 1, 1901, p. 22 (Marianas); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 70 (Mariannes); idem, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 268 (Guam?); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 32 (Marriane); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 1, 1931, p. 43 (Marshalls); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 188 (Marianas); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3rd ed., 1942, p. 210 (Marianas); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 5 (Marshalls).
Geographic range.—North Pacific Ocean. Breeds on islands northwest of Hawaii. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands—Agrigan.
Characters.—A large oceanic bird with sooty-brown coloration; darker on nape, wings and tail; lighter on forehead, sides of head, and abdomen; area surrounding bill whitish; tail whitish at base; bill dark reddish-brown; feet black.
Remarks.—This albatross has been recorded from waters near the Mariana Islands. Quoy and Gaimard (1824:145) observed "albatross" between the Mariana and the Hawaiian Islands. The only actual specimens obtained from the islands were reported on by Oustalet (1896:51). These were eight Black-footed Albatrosses which were taken on the coast of Agrigan by Marche in December, 1888, and January, 1889. Oustalet gives the following measurements: total length, 680-785; wing, 485-525; tail, 180-225; tarsus, 80-90; culmen, 108-125. The specimens are apparently in the Paris Museum.
Peters (1931:43) lists the Marshall Islands as part of the range of D. nigripes.
In the period of the late war Gleise (1945:221) observed eight Short-tailed Albatrosses (D. albatrus Pallas) "off Saipan." Specimens of D. albatrus have not been taken in Micronesia. According to Austin (1948b:32) this albatross "is now virtually extinct," and this record may be questioned.