ON rilK iiCCllMJKNi'K (IF TllK rUK>lKI' I'KMinX 1111,1,. 75 



Ilall.'^ Regions 5 (Tiisniania) aiul (i (Western Victoria and South 



Australia). 

 Littler.15 Tasmania, Soutli Australia. i^ 

 Mathews. 1^ Australian Seas. 

 Lucas and Le Souef^^. South Australia, 'rasniania. 



Forster's Aiilciiodi/lcs clinj^'ocdiiif having been cleHnitely accepted as 

 the type of the Australian representative oi the species, it is desirable t(j 

 discuss the author and the material upon which he founded the species. 



John Keint)ld (sometimes spelt Reinhold or Reynohl) Forster and 

 his son George, arrived in England from Germany in 17(!7. lie became 

 associated with Joseph Banks, Lord Sandwich, and Cook, the great navi- 

 gator.^^ As soon as it was known that Mr. Banks had withdrawn 

 from Cook's proposed second expedition, Forster applied for the appoint- 

 ment of Naturalist for the vo3"age, and having secured the interest of Lord 

 Sandwich, he obtained the position. He was to receive the £4',000 which 

 had been gi-anted by Parliament to secure the services of Dr. Lynd. His 

 son, a youth of eighteen, accompanied him as his assistant.^''' 



Captain Cook-"^ in describing the personnel of his second expedition, 

 says: — "It being thought of public utility, that some person skilled in 

 Natural History should be engaged to accompany me in this voyage, the 

 parliament granted an ample sum for that purpose, and Mr. John Reinhold 

 Forster, with his son, were pitched upon for this employment." 



Forster did not prove an agreeable companion, and fell out with most 

 of his felloAV voyagei's. In particuhir, William Wales, the astronomer to 

 the expedition, Avas very scathing in his comments upon the naturalist, 

 his personal qualities and qualifications.-'^ 



Upon his I'eturn from the voyage, some disagreement arose with 

 regard to the manner in which Forster's scientific observations were to be 

 incorporated in the narrative of the expedition for publication. This 

 culmijiated in an order directed by Lord Sandwich to Forster, forbidding 

 him to publish anything relating to the voyage. Notwithstanding this 

 prohibition, Forster published"-- an account of the voyage under his 

 sou's name. 



!■» Hall— A Key to tlie Birds of Australia, 1906. 



i' Littler says " This dweller on the lonely Islands of the Southern Ocean is very 

 seldom seen round the coast of Tasmania. A few specimens have been taken round 

 the Southern Coast, and one or two in Bass Strait." (The Birds of Tasmania, 1910). 



'« Mathews— The Birds of Australia, i., 1910. 



1' Lucas and Le Souef — The Birds of Australia, 1911. 



I'* Lichtensteiu — Descriptiones animalium, etc., 184 1 (preface) . 



18 Kitson — Captain James Cook, 1907, p. 2:38. 



-" Cook — A Voyage towards the Soutli Pole, and Kouud the World, etc., 1779 

 (gen. introd., p. xxxiv.) 



-1 Wales — Kemarks on Mr. Forster's Account of Captain Cook's last Voyage 

 Round the World, etc., 1778. 



-^ Forster — A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop 

 Resolution, etc., 1778. 



