No. 5.] THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD . Ill 



There is, therefore, according to Mathews, a double mistake 

 in Latham's assertion, first as regards the name of the bird, 

 secondly as regards the name of the locality. 



In my opinion, things are slightly different. I believe that 

 the name of the locality mentioned is correct, the confusion 

 exists only in the name of the bird, but is not what Sharpe and 

 Mathews thought. The accipitrine bird that Latham ought to 

 have mentioned as existing in Botany Island is by no means 

 Haliaetus leucogaster, but decidedly Pandion Jialiaetus ; it is 

 an Osprey, not a Sea Eagle, as I hope the following lines will 

 undoubtedly show. 



As I have lately had occasion to recall (Ibis, 1917), Botany 

 Island is one of the names of a small islet off the southern 

 coast of New Caledonia. Cook landed there with some of his 

 companions, and while the ship's carpenter was getting the 

 wood needed for the repairs of the Resolution, some plants 

 and animals were gathered by the naturalists and officers of 

 the expedition. One of them shot a bird which Cook called 

 Falco Haliaetus, and declared to be like those they found on 

 the coasts of England. 



The accuracy of that denomination is not doubtful, since the 

 bird Cook mentioned is still frequently met with on the coasts 

 of New Caledonia, particularly on the sandy islets which 

 border them. It is the kind of Osprey I have thought it right 

 to distinguish, which I did under the name of Pandion haliaetus 

 microhaliaetus (Rev. fr. d'Ornith., No. 81, p. 201, 1916). 



Besides, the existence of the Osprey in the New Caledonian 

 archipelago was not unknown to Latham's contemporary 

 naturalists. Gmelin, indeed, mentions its presence " in insula 

 quoque maris pacifici Isle of Pines" (Syst. Nat., Vol. L, p. 

 263, 1788). The substitution here of the name of the larger 

 neighbouring island — the Isle of Pines (= Spruce-Tree Isle), 

 for Botany Island allows us to trace Gmelin' s source in the 

 present case ; it is not Cook's own relation, but most probably 

 Forster's MS. where Lichtenstein took the following lines— 

 " Circa novam Caledoniam in insula minuta, Spruce- 

 Tree Isle et circa eandem, observavimus : (1) Falconem 



