This species is abundant off the Cape of Good Hope, and also in the seas between the African shores and Tasmania. Gould observed it off Capes Howe and Northumberland on the southern coast of Australia, and Gilbert tells us that he saw it flying on the western coast about Rottnest Island, in short, its presence may be expected throughout the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere. THE SOOTY OR BLACK ALBATROSS. The SOOTY or BLACK ALBATROSS (_Diomedea_ or _Phœbetria fuliginosa_) is principally of a dark sooty grey; the head and wings are brown. In this species the tail is wedge-shaped. The Sooty or Black Albatross, one of the commonest species, is universally spread over all temperate latitudes south of the equator. According to Latham, these birds breed on the Island of Tristan d'Acunha, and are gregarious, many of them building their nests close to each other; in the area of half an acre were reckoned upwards of a hundred. The nest is of mud, raised five or six inches, and slightly depressed at the top; when the young are more than half-grown they are covered with a whitish down; they stand on their respective hillocks like statues, until approached close, when they make a strange clattering with their beaks, and if touched squirt a deluge of fetid oily fluid from the nostrils. "The Black Albatross is common," says Layard, "along the south coast of Africa, at a little distance from the land. It is fond of hovering over a ship's deck, and I have obtained specimens by sending a small rifle bullet through them, thus killing them instantly; if struck with shot, their feathers are so dense that they seldom receive a death wound, but drift seaward and perish miserably. I have never observed any of the other Albatrosses hover over the deck as this bird constantly does; I have seen it almost touch a man on the royal yard. On these occasions it seems actuated by curiosity, and keeps turning its head from side to side, scanning everything with its brilliant dark eye." The eggs of this species resemble those of _D. exulans_, but are somewhat smaller, being about four inches two lines long by two inches six lines broad.