THE 



VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER 



ZOOLOGY. 



REPORT on the Anatomy of the Petrels (lubinares), collected during the 

 Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger. By W. A. Forbes, B.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., 

 M.B.O.U., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, Prosector to the 

 Zoological Society of London. 



I. INTRODUCTORY. 



Materials for the knowledge of the structure of the soft parts of the class Aves, when 

 the members of that group indigenous to a country have been examined, are for the 

 most part only to be obtained through the medium of zoological gardens, by the inhabi- 

 tants of these, on their decease, coming into the hands of some person competent to 

 examine them. In spite of the increased facilities of communication of the present day, 

 and the greater experience of those in charge of bving zoological collections, there still 

 remain many groups of birds which as yet it has been found impossible to obtain or keep 

 in a living state. Such birds in consequence can only be adequately studied from spirit- 

 specimens, and these also it is frequently very difficult to obtain, especially if the species 

 wanted are of large size, or inhabit little explored and inaccessible countries. 



The group of Petrels is one that has till the present been hardly at all examined 

 anatomically, as but few species inhabit the European seas, and even these, on account of 

 their peculiar habits, are rarely to be obtained in the flesh, either in a living or dead 

 state. The majority of the group, inhabiting the little visited oceans and islands of the 

 Southern Hemisphere, have been known simply from skins or skeletons, the great size of 

 many of them rendering bringing their bodies home in spirit impracticable to any 

 ordinary collector. Nor have we as yet succeeded in obtaining or keeping any in a living 

 state, except on one or two rare occasions. 



When therefore H.M.S. Challenger was starting on her voyage of circumnavigation it 



V (ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. — PART XI. — 1882.) L 1 



