CHIONIS MINOR 87 



The three specimens then kuowu to De Bhiinville were, first, a 

 skin in an English collection, for a long- time unique (perhaps Forster's 

 type); second, one obtained by MM. Quoy & Gaimard from the voyage 

 of the Astrolabe, in 1824; third, one obtained by MM-Lesson & Garnot, 

 in the course of the voyage of the Coquille, when an individual came 

 on board of the ship "at the distance of eighty leagues from Patagonia, 

 the nearest land." "Anderson observed it in flocks in Christmas Har- 

 bor," but appears to have given no description by which the peculiarity 

 of the Kerguelen species (0. minor) was recognized, and of which this 

 is the first recorded observation. 



M. de Bliiinville describes briefly the external parts of G. alha, and 

 the skeleton, the latter including of the skull only the posterior part 

 without the occiput, and being defective also as to the coccyx and 

 limbs. He appears not to have seen either the muscles or viscera, but 

 to have been dependent for his brief description of the la*"ter upon the 

 sometimes erroneous recollections of M. Butta. It should be noticed 

 that the observations upon the natural history and habits of the genus 

 had been made upon specimens that flew on board of ships at sea, 

 and therefore were not under their natural or wild conditions. 



His reasons for referring the genus to the vicinity of Hcemafopus are 

 summed up by himself (p. 106) as follows: 



" 1°. Le nombre des vertebres 15 — 6 — 14—8, est le meme, 



"2°. Le nombre et la forme des cotes sont les monies. 



"3". Le sternum, de meme forme generale, a deux 6chancrures sub- 

 6gales, la superieure un pen plus grande que I'inferieure. 



"4°. Le canal intestinal a egalementtroisccecums,dontdeuxterminaux 

 mediocres et un median fort petit. 



"5". L'estomac est egalement forme d'uu gesier fort petit sans jabot. 



" C. La queue est courte et composee de six paires de pennes 6gales. 



"7°. Les ailes, formees de dix pennes a la main, sont aigues. 



"8°. Les jambes sont pen elevees, et nues seulement vers le talon. 



" 9°. Les tarses, nou comprimes, sont egalement reticules en avant 

 com me en arriere. 



" 10". La plantedes doigts est elargie de mauiere qu'ils semblent hor- 

 des lateralement. 



" 11°. Ce sont Egalement des oiseaux marcheurs et coureurs; 



"12°. Habitant les rivages de la mer ; 



"13". Oil ils cherchent leur uourriture, consistant en coquillages et 

 peut-etre en animaux morts." 



