_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.
=Puffinus pacificus chlororhynchus= Lesson