_Pelecanoides_ they are decidedly short: the primaries are eleven in number; the secondaries are ten or less in the Oceanitinae, thirteen of more in the remaining forms, and amount to more than thirty in some of the Diomedeinae. The tail is rarely long, as in _Phoebetria_, and may be even, rounded, graduated, or emarginated; the above species, _Bulweria_, and some forms of _Puffinus_ have it wedge-shaped, while {61}a distinct fork occurs in _Oceanodroma_. Sixteen rectrices are found in _Ossifraga_, fourteen in _Fulmarus_, _Priocella_, and _Daption_, twelve elsewhere. The small tongue is somewhat triangular, being rather larger in _Ossifraga_ and _Prion_; the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial; and an after-shaft is present, though in some cases rudimentary. The soft, dense plumage shows various patterns of black, brown, grey, and white; the bill and feet may be black, brown, flesh- or horn-tinted, yellow, orange, or parti-coloured, but in _Prion_ and _Halobaena_ the latter are bluish. Light and dark phases are not uncommon, as in _Fulmarus_ and _Ossifraga_; the sexes are invariably similar; and the nestlings, which long remain helpless, are clad in thick down of a black, brown, grey, or white hue, through which the feathers appear gradually. Some white Albatroses have intermediate dusky stages of plumage, and do not gain the adult coloration at once, as most of the Family seem to do. _Diomedea exulans_ is one of the largest birds that fly, exceeding a goose in size, while the smaller Petrels are hardly bigger than Finches. The range of the Order is world-wide, though a majority of species frequent the desolate tracts and islands of the southern oceans; but even Albatroses breed in the North Pacific.