Sub-fam. 1. _Diomedeinae._–This contains two genera, _Phoebetria_ and _Diomedea_, of which the former has one member, _P. fuliginosa_, of a sooty grey colour, distinguished from its allies by the sulcated mandible and cuneate tail. It frequents the South Seas, while straying to Oregon, as does _Diomedea culminata_; and has similar manners to other Albatroses. _Diomedea exulans_, the Wandering Albatros, or "Cape Sheep," of the Southern Oceans generally, is white with narrow dusky undulations above and almost black wings; and particulars of the habits having been already given, it only remains to refer to the majestic flight, described by Professor Hutton as follows: "With outstretched, motionless wings he sails over the surface of the sea, now rising high in the air, now with a bold sweep, and wings inclined at an angle with the horizon, descending until the tip of the lower one all but touches the crests of the waves as he skims over them. Suddenly he sees something floating on the water and prepares to alight; but how changed he now is from the noble bird but a moment before, all grace and symmetry. {64}[Illustration: FIG. 18.–Wandering Albatros. _Diomedea exulans._ × ⅑.] He raises his wings, his head goes back, and his back goes in; down drop two enormous webbed feet straddled out to their full extent, and with a hoarse croak, between the cry of a Raven and that of a sheep, he falls 'souse' into the water. Here he is at home again, breasting the waves like a cork. Presently he stretches out his neck, and with great exertion of his wings runs along the top of the water for seventy or eighty yards, until, at last, having got sufficient impetus, he tucks up his legs, and is once more fairly launched in the air."[67] _D. regia_, of the New Zealand seas, has no undulations on the back; the similar _D. chionoptera_, of the Southern Indian Ocean, has nearly white wing-coverts; and _D. albatrus_, of the North Pacific, has buff crown and nape. Of the smaller forms, or Mollymauks (p. 65), _D. irrorata_, of West Peru, is sooty-brown with plentiful white mottlings and white head; _D. nigripes_, of the North Pacific, is the same colour, but shews white only at the base of the tail {65}and bill, and near the eye; _D. immutabilis_, found from Laysan to Japan, is darker, with white head, neck, rump, base of tail, and lower parts; _D. melanophrys_, of the southern oceans, which has occurred in California, and in summer in England as well as at the Faeroes,[68] is white, with a blackish band on each side of the eye, slaty back, brownish-black wings, and grey tail; _D. bulleri_, of the New Zealand seas, is greyish-brown, with white rump and lower surface, and ashy or whitish head; _D. culminata_ and _D. chlororhyncha_, of the southern oceans, _D. cauta_ of Tasmania, _D. salvini_ of the New Zealand Seas, and _D. layardi_ of those of the Cape, have similarly coloured plumage; the last five being