86 NATURAL HISTORY OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



^^Patrie inconnuey 



In the following year be contributed a drawing (of the head) to the 

 same ])eriodical (pi. 2, f. 2). 



En 1849 G. minor was figured by G. R. Gray,* under a description of 

 the genus which was placed by him in the fifth family (Chionididce) of 

 Gallinw, the other members of the family being T/wwoconts and Attagis. 

 The supposed relationship between these birds was first pointed out, so 

 far as we know, by Mr. Darwin,t in 1833, when, referring to TJmiocorus, 

 Attagis, and C. alba, he utters the pregnant sentence we have chosen as 

 the motto for this essay. 



De Blainville meanwhile, in 1830,1 before C minor had been described, 

 turned his attention to the anomalous relationships of the genus, and 

 decided that its nearest affinity was with Hoematopus. The position he 

 assumed respecting its relationships requires special consideration, 

 since it was defended with learned ingenuity and has been generally ac- 

 cepted without question. 



He based his conclusion upon the examination of a skeleton of the 

 trunk of Chionis alba, obtained from M. Baillon, of Abbeville, with some 

 details of its internal organization and natural history obtained from 

 M. P. E. Botta, one of his assistants at the Paris Museum. M. Botta's 

 specimen had come on board of a ship, during a commercial voyage 

 around the world, in latitude 55° south, longitude 04° west (between 

 1 be Falkland Islands andtDape Horn). Previous to this time specimens 

 had been exceedingly rare, only three skins being known to exist, and 

 no anatomical material being accessible. 



M. de Blainville enumerates, among those who had already treated 

 of CMonis, Forster, Pennant, Latham, Gmelin, Bonnaterre, Illiger, 

 Vieillot, Oken, Temminck, Goldfuss, Fabbe Ranzani, Quoy &, Gaimard, 

 ■ Lesson, Wagler, Cuvier, and Isidore-Geoffroy. By these writers it had 

 been successively and alternately considered as a wader (echassier), 

 palmipede, and gallinaceous bird, nWied (rapproche) to three difierent 

 genera, or considered as a distinct family ; while it had been passed 

 over by other naturalists, who did not consider the data sufficiently full 

 for a determination ; or held to be incertw sedis, '■'■cequi est, en pareil cas, 

 le parti le plus convenable:^^^ 



* Geuera of Birds, 1849, p 522, pi. — . 



tNaturalist's Voynge around the World, p. 94; cf., also, Voy. Beagle, 4to, 1841, pp. 

 118, 119. 



t Mdmoire sur la place que doit occuper daus le. syst^me ornitbologique le genro 

 CMonis on Bec-en-fourreau. < Ann. Sci. Nat. vi, 1836, p. 97. 



§ De Blainville, 1. c. 



