76 RRConns of iiik austkaliax musktm. 



Frum the foregoing an inipai'tial judgmeut cau easily be an'ived at 

 as to the personal characteristics of the Author. Now as to the material 

 upon which he founded his Jptenodi/tes chnjsucoiiie. 



In 1781 he published an account of the ^^ Aptenodi/l(V, ii family uf 

 birds peculiar to the Southern Hemisphere. ""-^"^ From his introductory 

 remarks, T translate the following-^ :— 



"Daring the voyage to the Southern Hemisphere which I undertook 

 with the able and distinguished navigator, James Cook, who has been 

 taken from us by an untimely death, I had the opportunity of seeing a 

 great many species of this family, and of examining their habits and 

 nature with considerable care. In the case of only two species have I 

 described the skins of dead birds ; one species, which I have never seen, 

 has become known to me only from Edwards' plate. Consequently, 

 hardly anyone could be better qualified to discuss this family of birds, 

 wliether by reason of knowledge or of being an eye witness, tlian myself 

 and my son, Cleorge Forster. May I, therefore, be allowed to introduce to 

 ornithology the new genus of the Aptenodytie (wingless divers), and to 

 communicate their history to the learned world as far as I was able to 

 investigate it" (p. 126). "In New Zealand we saw fairly often a species 

 and we described it because it had not been examined l)y anyone 

 before us. This we called minor, because the other species exceeded it 

 in siz;e. lief ore we could examine this species, the other ship-^ was 

 se[)arated from oui'S during a period of fog, ami had been driven to the 

 southern extremity of New Holland. In this corner of New Holland 

 another species of Aptenodytes, which, on account of its iviiiarkable crest, 

 I have called clirysocoine, had been killed by the seamen. An example of 

 this sj)ecies, given to ine by the celebrated Captain Tobias Furneaux, 1 

 myself have described, Avhile my son has made a plate of it. 1 afterwards 

 saw in London anothei- specimen, brought fixim tlie Falkland Islands, 

 which .loll. Steph. Hn.usman, M.D., has now ])hu'ed in the Museum of His 

 Serene Jlighness, the Duke of Urunswick. 



"At the New Year Islands, near Stuateu Ishind, we saw several 

 thousands ot' AiitunoJijtrs iiudjetlidiird, and more than hve hundred of them 

 were eaten by tlie seamen. We luet tliis same species at the Islaiul of 

 South Georgia, in Possession llaihinir, togetliei' witli another gigantic 

 species, wliicli we accordingly named imhti-hnnifii . 



" Jiefore W'e landed, we saw I'roni tlie ship in the neighhourliootl ol' 

 this Island, Penguins with intensely reddish eyes, swimming in the sea. 

 We had come across the same kind of bird in the sea wliicli washes the 

 Island seen by the French Cjiptain, Kei-gueleii, in the neighiioiiihood (if 

 which we cruised, the air being obscured for some days by a very dense 



-■'' Forster— II iKt-nria AptenudytiLS etc., 1781, p. 125. 



-■' I ackuowledj^e iny indeliteduess to Assistant- Professor F. A. Todd, of the 

 Sydney University, tor elucidation of some obscure passages in the Latin text. 



-'•■' The Advculmc, Captain l''ururaii.\. 



