This painting is reproduced in Birds of the Atlantic Ocean (1968), written by Ted Stokes and illustrated by Shackleton. The bird is described as having a 'distinctive tubenose bill', a 'short, fat neck', and 'wings which are pearl-grey above with a light patch at the base of the primaries' and which 'are straight and rigid – not cranked like a gull's'. 'Except when breeding, this little 'albatross' – some think of it that way – is a strictly pelagic bird, spending its life on the high seas, well out of sight of land'.