A Synopsis of the Birds of North America

by John James Audubon

Not figured.

Bill much compressed, its ridge convex in its whole length, but with its basal outline, although semicircular, only half an inch in extent, so that between its margins and those of the sides of the bill, there is behind the nostrils a space nearly a quarter of an inch in breadth; the ridge in its whole length, the tip of the upper mandible, and the crura of the lower along their inferior edge, yellow, the rest black; feet yellow; head and neck ash-grey; the fore part of the back shaded into blackish-grey; wings entirely brownish-black, shafts of primaries white, toward the end brownish-black; hind part of back, rump, and upper tail-coverts white; tail deep grey, the bases and shafts of the feathers white, loral space of a darker grey than the rest of the head, that colour deepening at the fore part of the eye, forming a spot which includes the whole of the upper eyelid, and the anterior half the lower, of which the other half is white; lower half of the neck anteriorly, breast, sides, abdomen, lower tail-coverts, some of the axillaries, and the larger wing-coverts white; the others being brownish-black.

Length, 37; wing, 21; bill, 5¹/₄; tail, 8¹/₄.

Pacific Ocean, not far from Columbia River.

Diomedea chlororhynchos, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. v. p. 326.

458. 3. Diomedea nigripes, Aud. Black-footed Albatross.

Not figured.

Bill brownish-black, moderately compressed, its ridge very broad and convex at the base, its basal outline semicircular and two inches in extent, so that its sides behind overlap and obliterate the sutural space behind the nostrils; feet black; fore part of head, cheeks and throat light dusky-grey, the capistral feathers nearly white, as is a small patch at the posterior angle of the eye; upper part of head, hind neck, and all the upper parts, including the wings and tail, sooty-brown tinged with grey, as are the lower surface of the wings and the axillaries; lower parts dull grey, deeper on the fore parts and sides of the neck.

Length, 36; wings, 21; bill, 5; tail, 3.

Pacific Ocean, off California.