. be aye BSN Visas | 4.M,S. 
Pe req 
‘J 1962 
| 
Zeetpay, iM, x}, 18 @2 
THE 
VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
ZOOLOGY. 
REPORT on the Anatomy of the Prrrets (Tubinares), collected during the 
Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger. By W. A. Forzzs, B.A., F.L.S., F.GS., 
M.B.0.U., Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, Prosector to the 
Zoological Society of London. 
I. INTRODUCTORY. 
Materiats for the knowledge of the structure of the soft parts of the class Aves, when 
the members of that group indigenous to a country have been examined, are for the 
most part only to be obtained through the medium of zoological gardens, by the inhabi- 
tants of these, on their decease, coming into the hands of some person competent to 
examine them. In spite of the increased facilities of communication of the present day, 
and the greater experience of those in charge of living zoological collections, there still 
remain many groups of birds which as yet it has been found impossible to obtain or keep . 
in a living state. Such birds in consequence can only be adequately studied from spirit- 
specimens, and these also it is frequently very difficult to obtain, especially if the species 
wanted are of large size, or inhabit little explored and inaccessible countries. 
The group of PrTrELs is one that has till the present been hardly at all examined 
anatomically, as but few species inhabit the European seas, and even these, on account of 
their peculiar habits, are rarely to be obtained in the flesh, either in a living or dead 
state. The majority of the group, inhabiting the little visited oceans and islands of the 
Southern Hemisphere, have been known simply from skins or skeletons, the great size of 
many of them rendering bringing their bodies home in spirit impracticable to any 
ordinary collector. Nor have we as yet succeeded in obtaining or keeping any in a living 
state, except on one or two rare occasions. 
When therefore H.M.S. Challenger was starting on her voyage of circumnavigation it 
19° (Z00L. OHALL, EXP.—PaRT x1,—1882.) Ll 
