New Zealand Birds in 1772 33 



been found on the He Aride, which is now known as Crozet 

 Island, and the whole group as the Crozet Islands. The Cape 

 Petrel {^Daption capensis) nests on Tristan da Cunha and Ker- 

 guelen Island. A Cormorant {Fhalacrocorax verrucosus) inhabits 

 Kersuelen Island, but its occurrence on the Crozet Islands is 

 doubtful. Finally, Crozet saw on the island on which he landed 

 a white bird, which he mistook for a white pigeon, and argues 

 that a country producing seeds for the nurture of pigeons must 

 exist in the vicinity. This bird was probably the Sheath-bill 

 {Chionarchus crozettensis) of the Crozet Islands. 



The next land visited was Tasmania, where the vessels cast 

 anchor on the east side of the island. Like their Dutch pre- 

 decessors, the French mariners bestowed the names of European 

 birds upon the birds which they saw in these new lands, and it 

 would be an idle task to seek the equivalents of the ousels, 

 thrushes, and turtle-doves which Crozet saw in Tasmania. There 

 can be no doubt, however, about his pelicans, for Pelecanus con- 

 spicillatus still nests on the east coast of the island or on islets 

 adjacent to the coast. 



The duration of Crozet's sojourn in New Zealand was about 

 four months in the autumn and winter of 1772. The vessels 

 anchored in the Bay of Islands. Crozet has given a long enume- 

 ration of tl^e birds which he saw in New Zealand. We will not 

 seek to find what his wheatears and wagtails, starlings and larks, 

 ousels and thrushes may have been, but we may make an excep- 

 tion in favour of his black thrushes with white tufts (' grives 

 noires a huppes blanches '). These birds were evidently Tuis 

 ( Prosthemadu ra Nov^- Zealandi<£ ) . 



Crozet distributes the birds which he saw in New Zealand 

 under four heads, as birds of the forest, of the lakes, of the open 

 country, and of the sea-coast. In the forests were Wood Pigeons 



F 



