Birds

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1879
• Subjects: Antarctic; Hooker; Kerguelen; Kerguelen Island; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1879.0012; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1879.0012

I propose on the present occasion to give a complete account of the Avifauna of Kerguelen Island, founded on the collections in the British Museum (partly made bv the Rev. Mr. Eaton, partly by the naturalists of the Antarctic expedition) and on the reports of the German and American expeditions, which have been recently published.* The American expedition obtained twenty-one species, the German naturalists recording twenty-three.† With regard to the Antarctic Expedition, Sir Wyville Thomson thus writes:— “ This expedition had the extraordinary advantage of having Dr. Hooker attached “ to it as one of the assistant-surgeons, and the surgeons to the Erebus and “ Terror , Dr. M‘Cormick and Mr. Robertson, and the assistant-surgeon of the “ Terror , Dr. Lyall, were all zealous naturalists, and co-operated heartily with “ Dr. Hooker in his work, so that every possible advantage was taken of the “ sixty-eight days of their stay in Christmas Harbour. Their visit was, however, “ in the depth of winter, and although the actual difference between the winter “ and summer temperature is not so great as might have been anticipated, the “ winter weather is so boisterous and unsettled, that on forty-five of the sixty-eiglit “ days it blew a gale, and on three days only neither snow nor rain fell.” Under these circumstances, therefore, it is not a little creditable to the officers of this expedition that they managed to collect a series of nearly every species obtained by the more recent visitors to the island, while they procured several species which none of the latter have met with.