86 NATURAL HISTORY OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



'• Pafrie inconnuey 



In the following year he contributed a drawing (of the head) to the 

 same periodical (pi. 2, f. -!). 



[n 1849 C. minor was figured by G. R. Gray,* under a description of 

 the genus which was placed by him in the fifth family [Chionididce) of 

 Gallinw, the other members of the family being T/wwoconts and Attagis. 

 The supposed relationship between these birds was first pointed out, so 

 far as we know, by Mr. Darwin,t in 1833, when, referring to Thinocorus, 

 Attagis, and C. alba, he utters the pregnant sentence we have chosen as 

 the motto for this essay. 



De Blainville meanwhile, in 1836,J before C. minor hud been described, 

 turned his attention to the anomalous relationships of the genus, and 

 decided that its nearest affauity was with Hcemaiopus. The position he 

 assumed respecting' its relationships requires special consideration, 

 since it was defended with learned ingenuity and has been generally ac- 

 cepted without question. 



lie based his conclusion upon the examination of a skeleton of the 

 trunk of Chionis alba, obtained from M. Baillon, of Abbeville, with some 

 details of its inteinal organization ami natural history obtained from 

 M. P. E. Botta, one of his assistants at the Paris Museum. M. Botta's 

 specimen had come on board of a ship, during a commercial voyage 

 around the world, in latitude 55° south, longitu/Lle (i4° west (between 

 the Ftdkland Islaiids and Cape Horn). Previous to this time specimens 

 had been exceedingly rare, only three skins being known to exist, and 

 no anatomical material being accessible. 



M. de Blainville enumerates, among those who had already treated 

 of Chiorm, Forster, Pennant, Latham, Gmelin, Boiinaterre, Illiger, 

 Vicillot, OUeii, Temminck, Goldfuss, l'abb6 Eanzani, Quoy & Gaimard, 

 Lesson, Wagler, Cuvier, and Isidore-Geoff'roy. By these writers it had 

 been successively and alternately considi'red as a wader (echassier), 

 l)almii)ede, and gallinaceous bird, allied (rapproche) to three different 

 genera, or considered as a distinct family ; while it had been passed 

 over by other naturalists, who did not consider the data sufficiently full 

 for a determination : or held to be incerta^ sedis, '■'•cequi est, enpareil cas, 

 le parti le plun convenable.^^^ 



* Geuera of Birds, 1849, p 522, pi, — , 



t Naturalist's Voyage aroimd the World, p. 94; cf., also, Voy. Beagle, 4to, 1841, pp. 

 118, 119. 



t M^moire snr la place que doit occuper daus le sj'st^tne ornitbologique le genro 

 Chiovis on Boe-en-foiirrean. < Ann. Sci. Nat. vi, 1836, p. 97. 



§ De Blainville, 1. c. 



I 



