INTRODUCTION. 



HISTORICAL. 



THE foundation of our knowledge of the fauna of New 

 Zealand was laid by the naturalists who accompanied 

 Captain Cook in his first and second voyages round the world. 

 In the first voyage (1769-70) Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander 

 were the naturalists and Mr. S. Parkinson was the artist. In the 

 second voyage (1773-4) Dr. J. R. Forster was the naturalist and 

 his son George was the artist. The information thus obtained at 

 so much labour was nearly lost to the world by the Government 

 declining to publish the results. The original drawings of Mr. 

 S. Parkinson and Mr. G. Forster, as well as the manuscript notes 

 of Dr. Solander, are still in the British Museum. 



The birds were described, from Parkinson's and Forster's 

 drawings, by Latham in 1781-92, in his General Synopsis of 

 Birds ; and these descriptions were incorporated by Gmelin in 

 his edition of the Systema Nature? Linnet, 1788, when scientific 

 names were given to the species. The manuscript of Dr. Forster's 

 description of the fishes was published by Schneider in his edition 

 of Bloch's Systema Ichthyologies, generally with Forster's own 

 names, but sometimes with new ones, and ultimately Forster's 

 descriptions of both birds and fishes were published in Berlin in 

 1844, under the name of Descriptiones Animalium quce in itinere 

 ad maris australis terras per annos 1772, 1773 et 1774 suscepto 

 collegit, observavit et delineavit Joannes Reinhold Forster. 



The few insects brought home by Sir Joseph Banks were 

 described in 1774-5 by Fabricius, and some of the types are 

 retained in the British Museum. Dr. Solander described a few 



B 



