126 Mr. V.l\.'Lo^vc un the 



that tliere seems no doubt but that this record was founded 

 on error. In addition to this, no example of Chionis has ever 

 been recorded by any oC the expeditions wliich have explored 

 the Aotarctic continent in the neighbourhood of Ross Bay, 

 Victoria Land, &c. ; so that the Booth-Wandel Island record, 

 off Graham's Land in 65° S. iat. (French Antarctic Exped- 

 ition), probably represents the farthest southern limit up to 

 date. In addition to these land-records, representatives of 

 the family have been met with far out at sea, many miles 

 from land. Thus Eagle Clarke (/. c.) records that on the 

 voyage of the * Scotia ' (Scottish National Antarctic Exped- 

 ition), while the vessel was midway between the Orkney 

 and Sandwich group, that is to say 300 miles from land, 

 Sheath-bills (Chionis alba) were observed, the exact position 

 being 59° 44' S. and 36° 40' W. According to observations 

 made on the 'Scotia,' Chionis alba does not appear to penetrate 

 into the Weddell Sea, and the most southerly point at which 

 it was observed on this expedition, was 61°. 



IT. Life-history and Habits of the Sheath-bills. 



Observations on these may be found in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions of the Royal Society,' vol. clxviii. 1879; in a 

 paper by Kidder & Cones (Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 3, 1876) ; 

 in an article by Alfred Newton in the ' Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica' (9th Ed.) ; in another by Prof. T. H. Studer of 

 the University of Berne (C. R. Congr. Orn. iii. pp. 275- 

 276) ; in the report by Menegaux on the Birds observed 

 and collected on the Fi-ench Antarctic Expedition (Exp. 

 Antarc. Fran9. 1903-5, Oiseaux, 1907)'; and in a recent and 

 most interesting account of these birds compiled by Eagle 

 Clarke from the records of the naturalists of the Scottish 

 Antarctic Expedition ('Ibis,' 1906, p. 182). 



With this bare allusion to some writers on the subject 

 under notice I should have been content, were it not for 

 the fact that certain points in the life-history and habits of 

 the Sheath-bill Avould possibly appear to bear on the 

 question of its affinities, and were it not also for the fact 

 that certain statements which have been made in connection 



