2 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



seemed that an excellent opportunity would be afforded for obtaining material to fill up 

 the blank that thus existed in our knowledge of the Petrels. At the suggestion of my 

 lamented predecessor Prof. A. H. Garrod, at that time Prosector to the Zoological Society, 

 the naturalist staff was requested to pay special attention to forming a collection of these 

 oceanic birds in spirit, so as to be available for anatomical examination. The result was 

 a very considerable collection indeed of the birds in question, all excellently preserved, 

 and including nearly all the most important and interesting of the known genera. These 

 were handed over, when the collections were being broken up for working out, to 

 Professor Garrod for examination. Unfortunately he had hardly commenced to work 

 seriously on them before he was struck down by the fingering illness which eventually 

 proved fatal to him. During that time, whenever well enough to do so, he continued to 

 work away at his favourite subject, and many of his drawings made then, chiefly relating 

 to the conformation of the syrinx in these birds, are now before me. An unfinished MS. 

 paper of his written about that time, treating on the anatomy of the Diving Petrel 

 (PelecancM.es) — a form the Procellarian affinities of which were then doubtful — was 

 sufficiently complete and important to justify, in the writer's opinion, its publication in 

 the reprint of Professor Garrod's papers which has since been edited by him. 



Succeeding to Professor Garrod's position at the Zoological Gardens early in 1880, I 

 applied immediately to the late Professor Sir Wyville Thomson to be allowed to retain 

 so much of the material collected by the Challenger as was likely to prove of service to 

 me in my researches on the anatomy of birds, and I especially asked to be allowed to 

 retain the collection of Petrels, with the object of drawing up a report thereon for the 

 present series of papers. I must take this opportunity to record my best thanks to 

 Sir Wyville Thomson for the very ready way in which he acceded to both my requests. 

 Having commenced work on the specimens of Petrels collected by the Challenger it 

 seemed desirable to make my report on the structure of that group as perfect and com- 

 plete as possible, and during the past two years I have therefore taken every opportunity 

 of acquiring specimens of them fit for dissection. By these means I have been enabled 

 to examine several species and genera of these birds not represented in the Challenger 

 collection, though that collection has formed the groundwork of my investigations. 



I herewith give a complete list of those species that I have been enabled to examine 

 in the flesh. All not otherwise indicated were collected by H.M.S. Challenger. And I 

 must take this opportunity to thank my friend Mr. Osbert Salvin, F.E.S., who reported 

 on the collection of Tubinares made in skins during the voyage, 1 for his kind assistance in 

 naming the spirit-specimens under my charge, as well as for much subsequent assistance 

 in points of nomenclature, and for valuable material that would not have otherwise been 

 available. 



1 Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger, vol. ii. part viii. pp. 140-149 (Report on the Birds — XL On 

 the Procellariul« collected during the Expedition). Also Proc. Zool. Soc, 1878, pp. 735-740. 



