122 NiCHOLLS, Study of Penguins on The Nohbies, Vic. [,sf'"\an 



good picture, and, as Stephens had given a Latin name to this 

 description," Mathews says, " we should accept this as the earUest 

 name available for the Australian form." (" Two feet or more 

 in length " can hardly be called a good description.) This was 

 in 1826 — a lapse of 53 years since Furneaux landed at Penguin 

 Island, in Tasmania. 



It would be interesting to know who made the drawing at Port 

 Jackson described by Latham, and where it is at present. In 

 this connection the Mitchell Library was communicated with, 

 but they have not got it. But, as Mr. Wright, the librarian, 

 states : — " It seems strange that the bird was not described 

 earlier than 1826 if it was found at Port Jackson, because Sir 

 Joseph Banks had men here collecting for him long before that 

 date, and Collins and White would surely have seen and described 

 it if it lived near the principal settlement. Is it not likely that 

 the specimen was brought here from some other part of Australia 

 and a sketch made from it here and sent to England ? " 



Also, long before this date, both Bass and Flinders were familiar 

 with the Little Penguin {E. minor). Bass, in October, 1798, when 

 he discovered the Strait that bears his name, must have seen the 

 bird, and probably ate it, although he makes no mention of it. 

 However, on his famous voyage in the whaleboat, just after 

 leaving Wilson's Promontory, on the 2nd October, he, much to 

 his amazement, rescued a party of white men.s They were the 

 remnant of a gang of convicts escaped from Port Jackson, who had 

 been marooned whilst they slept by the rest of their treacherous 

 companions, upon a small, wave-beaten rock. For five weeks 

 they had lived upon this small island off the Promontory, upon 

 Petrels and seals, saj^s Bass. And Penguins, too, we may be 

 sure. Two days later Bass's whaleboat turned into Western 

 Port, past Cape Woolamai. He spent twelve days in the harbour, 

 and from Bass's eye-sketch of the island he must have been 

 within sight and sound of The Nohbies. 



Again, in January, 1799, Bass and Flinders, in the Norfolk, a 

 25-ton sloop built of Norfolk Island pine, sailed from Sydney 

 Cove to confirm Bass's idea that a strait existed. This they did 

 by circumnavigating Van Diemcn's Land. Upon the return 

 voyage the Babel Isles were marked down and named " because 

 of the confusion of noises made by the Geese, Shags, Penguins, 

 Gulls, and Sooty Petrels."^ There we have the direct evidence 

 of both Bass and Flinders knowing the Little Penguin, and this 

 as early as 8th January, 1799 — the date of the discovery of the 

 Cat group of islands. Again, in 1802, Flinders found the bird 

 " under the bushes on Goose Island," one of the Recherche 

 Archipelago. 1" 



How was it, then, that E. minor went so long undescribed ? 

 and who was it made the drawing at Port Jackson ? One of 

 Banks's men, perhaps, or more likely either Bass or Flinders, both 

 very exact in describing and sketching natural features ; or was 

 it a sketch made by one of the early sealers and whalers out of 



I 



