184 Messrs. Sclater and Salvin on the Birds collected 



during the second surveying-expedition of the same region, 

 under the command of Capt. FitzRoy. 



Capt. King's first communications on the birds collected 

 during his voyage were published, in the form of lettei's addressed 

 to Mr. Vigors, in the 'Zoological Journal'*. Unfortunately 

 the descriptions there given of the supposed new species are so 

 short and so vague, that in many cases it is impossible to identify 

 themf. Nor are Capt. King's subsequent, though more matured, 

 descriptions, given in the Zoological Society's ' Proceedings'!, 

 entitled to much greater praise. A summary of these papers is 

 appended to the first volume of the ' Narrative of the Surveying- 

 Voyages of the ' Adventure ' and ' Beagle § ', whence it appears 

 that Capt. King obtained altogether from sixty to seventy species 

 of birds on the shores of the Straits of Magellan. 



Mr. Darwin's collections, formed during the second surveying- 

 expeditions, were, as every one knows, worked out in a much 

 more elaborate manner. Mr. Gould undertook the determination 

 of the species ) but, being unable to complete the task, owing to 

 his departure for Australia, Mr. George Gray assisted Mr. 

 Darwin in finishing the valuable work, which forms the third 

 volume of the ' Zoology of the Voyage of the ' Beagle '.' 



Here we find recorded the occurrence of seventy-seven species 

 of birds in Southern Patagonia, the principal locality of obser- 

 vation having been the shores of the Magellan Straits, besides 

 which various points were visited on the east and west coast 

 south of latitude 46° S. This list of mostly well-determined 

 species, accompanied, as it is, by Mr. Darwin's valuable notes 

 on the habits and localities, forms by far the most complete 

 account of the Patagonian avifauna yet published. 



* Vols. iii. pp. 422-432, aud iv. pp. 91-105. 



t This would have been of less importance if the typical specimens had 

 been carefully preserved. Unfortunately they are in most cases lost, 

 having been (as we are informed) deposited in the Zoological Society's 

 Museum, and scattered abroad on the dispersal of that collection. Mr. 

 Darwin's specimens were presented to the same collection, but were luckily 

 in most cases removed to the British Museum, where they now are. 



I '' Characters of new genera and species of birds fi-om the Straits of 

 Magellan," P. Z. S. 1830-31, pp. 14-16, and 29, 30. 



§ London : 1839. 



