CHI0NI3 MINOR. 87 



The three specimens then known to Be Blainville were, first, a 

 skin in an En^jlisli collection, for a lontr time nniqni' (perhaps Forsters 

 type); second, one obtained by MM. Quoy & Gaimard from the voyage 

 of the Astrolabe, in 1824; third, one obtained by MM. Lesson & Garnot, 

 in the coarse of the voyage of the Coquille, when an individual came 

 on board of the ship "at the distance of eighty leagues from Patagonia, 

 the nearest land." '-Anderson observed it in flocks in Christmas Har- 

 bor," but appears to have given no description by which the peculiarity 

 of the Kerguelen species (0. minor) was recognized, and of which this 

 is the first recorded observation. 



M. de Blainville describes briefly the external parts of C. aJha, and 

 the skeleton, the latter including of the skull only the posterior part 

 without the occiput, and being detective also as to the coccj^ and 

 limbs. He appears not to have seen either the muscles or viscera, but 

 to have been dependent for his brief description of the la^er upon the 

 sometimes erroneous recollections of M. Botta. It should be noticed 

 that the observations upon the natural history and habits of the genus 

 had been made upon specimens that flew on board (if ships at sea, 

 and therefore were not under their natural or wild conditions. 



His reasons for referring the genus to the vicinity of Rcematoptis are 

 summed up by himself (p. 10(3) as follows: 



"1°. Le nombre des verlebres 15— G— 14— 8, est le meme. 



"2°. Le nombre et la forme des cotes sont les memes. 



«3". Le sternum, de meme forme generale, a deux 6ehancrures sub- 

 6gales, lasut)erieure un pen plus grande que l'inf6rieure. 



"4°. Le canal intestinal a egaleraenttroisccecums,dontdeuxterminaux 

 mediocres et un median tort petit. 



"5". L'estomac est dgalement tbrme d'un gesier fort petit sans jabot. 



" G*». la queue est courte et compos6e de six paires de pennes 6gales. 



"7°. Les ailes, formees de dix pennes a la main, sont aigues. 



"80. Lesjambes sont pen elevees, et nues seulement vers le talon. 



" 9°. Les tarses, non comprimes, sont egalement reticules en avant 

 comme en arriere. 



" 10". La plantedes doigts est elargie de mauiere qu'ils semblent bor- 



(16s lat6ralement. 



" 11°. Ce sont Egalement des oiseaux raarcheurs et coureurs; 



"12°. Habitant les rivages de la mer ; 



"13°. Ou ils cherchent leur uourritiire, consistent en coquillages et 

 peutetre en animaux morts." 



