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Show 1873.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON A CHINESE ALBATROSS. 785 no sign of youth about either of the birds ; but as they differed in size, I hoped that they would turn out to be a pair. Unfortunately, however, they both proved males on dissection. They reminded me much oi Diomedea nigripes, Aud., which I had procured at Amoy, but were larger, and had larger and flesh-coloured bills. The smaller specimen measured in length 33 inches; wing from carpus to tip 19|, reaching one inch beyond elbow-tip and"about one inch beyond tail; expanse of wings 7 feet 1 inch. Bare portion of tibia to joint 2 inches ; tarse 3*8 ; middle toe and claw 5*3 ; expanse of foot across toes 5 inches. Legs and feet blackish, deeper on tarse, and deepest on toes and webs. Iris deep brown. Bill and inside of mouth pale purplish pink, dertrum horn-coloured, all lightly washed with blackish. Length of upper mandible from basal edge 4*8 ; lower, ditto 4*5, lower to gape 5*7. Tail 6*25, rounded, of 12 rectrices, the outermost *8 shorter than the centrals. The larger male was one inch longer in entire length. Wing 19*1 ; expanse of wings 7 feet 1| inch, 2*25 beyond the elbow, 1 inch beyond tail-tip. Bill to basal edge 5 inches ; lower mandible 4 7, to gape 6 inches, depth 17. Bare part of tibia 2 inches ; tarse 3*7 ; middle toe and claw 5*35 ; expanse of toes 5*4. The entire plumage of both the above birds was of a sooty brown, blacker on the head, hind neck, wings, and tail, and browner on the back. They both proved adult males on dissection, and seemed to have finished breeding. The right testis was \ inch long, white, and oval; the left § inch long, '1 in uniform breadth, and black. Proventriculus in the one containing feathers, in the other a few Ascarides and bits of seaweed with tips like the hooked beaks of some small birds. The bronchi bulge, go downwards and sidewards, then bend under the ribs on each side into a large globe, pressing between itself and the ribs as each enters the lung at the back. In tbe larger bird the globular swelling at the end of the bronchus was larger and flatter, showing, I presume, an older bird. Trachea with uniform broadish rings intercalated with membrane of equal breadth till about half an inch above its furcation, when the rings become narrower and closer-set; furca margined with two strong crescentic rings on either side, with a membrane between it and each bronchus ; rings of last as broad as in trachea ; rings of both trachea and bronchi entire. I procured two more of the same birds from Chinese fishermen ; and Mr. Campbell of the lighthouse sent me the fifth and last on the 22nd June. It had been caught on his island. One of these had a rather darker bill than the rest, and I was in hopes that it would turn out a female; but the whole five that I procured all proved males on dissection, and all had the contorted bronchi of maturity. All were in a very exhausted state, and soon succumbed : one, however, was somewhat stronger than the rest, and sat on his tarsal knees with his paws raised in front above the ground. He sometimes held his head up and moaned, and then went through the movements of swallowing, as those at Amoy used to (see ' Ibis,' 1863, p. 432). When seated at rest with closed wings, the wing-tips PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1873, No. L. 50 |