Description

John Cassin (1813-1869)
Plate 50, TheShort-tailed Albatross
From: Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1856
Chromolithograph
Paper dimensions: 10 ” x 7″
Framed dimensions: 16″ x 17

With text below image:
The Short-tailed Albatross, or Steller’s albatross, is a large rare seabird from the north Pacific. Although related to the other North Pacific albatrosses, it also exhibits behavioural and morphological links to the albatrosses of the Southern Ocean. It was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas from skins collected by the Georg Wilhelm Steller (after whom its other common name is derived). Once common, it was brought to the edge of extinction by the trade in feathers, but with protection has recently made a recovery.