1.19 



Octobers, 1839. 



The Rev. F. W. Hope in the Chair. 



The following letter, addressed to the Chairman of the Scientific 

 Committee by John Gould, Esq., Corresponding Member, was read ; 

 it is dated Van Diemen's Land, May 10th, 1839: — 



" Although my present occupations will not permit me to send a 

 lengthened communication, still, as a Corresponding Member of the 

 Zoological Society, I am desirous of contributing to the pages of its 

 proceedings; I therefore forward herewith the characters of some 

 new species of birds, together with a very slight summary of my 

 peregrinations since leaving England, trusting to lay before you at 

 some future period a more full account of the results of my labours. 

 The greater number of the birds from which the following characters 

 are taken are from the collection made by the officers of Her Ma- 

 jesty's ship the Beagle. To Captain Wickham and the other officers 

 of that vessel I am indebted for much kindness and attention. By 

 the exertions of Mr, Bynoe, surgeon of the Beagle, science has been 

 enriched, not only by the discovery of these new species of birds, 

 but of several others, and some quadrupeds of a most interesting de- 

 scription, the whole of which have been placed in my hands for the 

 purpose of describing, figuring, &c. 



" It is now twelve months since I left England. The early part 

 of the passage was boisterous and adverse, our ship being detained 

 eleven days in the Bay of Biscay, during which period numbers of 

 land-birds, all of European species, constantly visited the vessel ; but 

 as no great interest attaches itself to their chance occurrence, I shall 

 confine my observations more particularly to those species that make 

 the expansive ocean their home, and whose natural limits have been 

 but slightly recorded. The members of the genus Thalassidroma 

 wer^ the birds to which my especial attention was directed, from the 

 circumstance of the group being but slightly understood, and from 

 the great interest these little tenants of the ocean excite in the mind 

 of the voyager. Immediately off the Land's End, Wilson's Storm- 

 Petrel (^Thalassidroma Wilsoni) was seen in abundance, and con- 

 tinued to accompany the ship throughout the Bay. The little Storm- 

 Petrel (Thalassidroma pelagica, Selby) was also seen, but in far less 

 numbers : both species disappeared on approaching the latitude of 

 Madeira, their place there being occupied by another species, which 

 I took to be Thai. Bulweri. This latitude was also favourable to 

 the Shearwaters, Pvffinus cinereus, and Puff, obscurus, the former 

 being there in great numbers. 



" Wo came to anchor in the roadstead of Santa Cruz, Island of 

 Teneriffe, on the 1 1th of June. During our short stay at this island, 



Nos.LXXXII.&LXXXIII. — Procebdinus oftheZool. Society. 



