658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ror; and it is to this visit, and to the fact that Dr. Joseph D. Hooker 

 was botanist to tlie expedition, that we owe our present full knowl- 

 edge of the botany of the island. Had it not been long noted as a 

 favorite breeding-place for the sea-elephant, and hence resorted to 

 by sealers and whalers, it is doubtful whether any human being, other 

 than the intrepid explorers already alluded to, would have cared to 

 visit so desolate and forbidding a spot, until it came to be fixed upon 

 as a locality whence the transit of Venus could advantageously be 

 observed. 



Lying, as this island does, upon the vei-y skirts of the world, 

 far removed from any large body of land, and so placed as to be very 

 unlikely to receive additions to its flora and fauna by the agency of 

 either winds or currents, it was to be expected that its natural history 

 would present very many peculiarities, both of form and of adaptation. 

 Its flora, accordingly, and invertebrate animal life include an unusually 

 large number of genera and species peculiar to the island and its near 

 neighbors ; a fact which, considered in connection with its geological 

 characters, has led some scientific men ' to regard it as one of the few 

 remaining peaks of a great Antarctic Continent, probably (judging 

 from its botanical relations) once continuous with that of South 

 America. 



Even among birds there are at least two species not found else- 

 where, one of which, the Chionis minor of Hartlaub, or White Pad- 

 dy, sheath-bill, and " sore-eyed pigeon " of sealers and whalers, I pro- 

 pose to give a short account of. 



It was first seen by the transit-of-Venus parties and ship's com- 

 pany of the Swatara on the 11th of September, 1874, as that ves- 

 sel was steaming up Royal Sound toward the spot selected as 

 the observing station of the Kerguelen part of the expedition. It 

 was a very pretty white bird, of about the size and much the appear- 

 ance of a large pigeon, which came flying over from the shore, and 

 alighted on the keel of a boat that had been secured bottom-up at the 

 stern-davits. It walked up and down the keel of the boat, turning its 

 head from side to side, and examining with great curiosity the crowd 

 of interested spectators gathered on the poop, but showing not the 

 slightest fear. After a few minutes it flew back again, with a note, 

 while flying, not unlike the " chat-chat " of the common blackbird. 

 That afternoon several were caught without difficulty ; some were 

 knocked down with stones, and some were actually taken, unhurt, by 

 hand, being approached very gradually, and fed with crumbs until 

 thev came within reach. 



The nearer examination thus afforded gave us a plump bird, much 

 like a pigeon in size and shape, of pure white, very soft and downy 

 plumage, and with bright black eyes, surrounded by a quite distinct, 



^ See "Flora Antarctica," by Dr. J. D. Hooker (London, Reeve Brothers, 1847), vol 

 ii., pp. 210-220, inter alia. 



