v i AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN, FTC. 



1826. Bloxam, A. Voy. H.M.S. ' Blonde' Appendix. 



This Appendix is, to use Professor Newton's words, « a disgraee to all concerned since, so far from 

 advancing the knowledge of the object, it introduced so much confusion as to mislead many subsequent 

 writers-. The blame, however, does not rest on Bloxam, as his work was edited by a lady, Mrs Mana 

 Graham, who had only a few of Bloxam's notes to guide her. Bloxam had, indeed, made a fa.rly good 

 collection, having obtained nine species of land-birds, and among them an otherw.se unknown and now 

 evidently extinct species of Phaornis on Oahu ! " All the specimens were placed, properly labelled, at the 

 disposal of the Lords of the Admiralty, hut most of them hare long ago disappeared! 



It will, perhaps, be interesting to my readers to peruse the following letter and extracts from letters of 

 Bloxam to Swainson, which belong to the Swainson correspondence recently purchased by the Lumean 

 Society, and which I reprint by the kind permission of the President and Council of the Innnean Society . 



Copy of Letter from Bloxam to W. Swainson. 



Valparaiso, Sept. 18, 1825. 



I have just received your kind letter dated the 27th of last November, and much regret that I did not 

 receive it before. I have been very unsuccessful in my collection-having besides the Sandwich Islands only touched 

 at two other small islands in our voyage hither, and at both we were not on shore more than two hours ; one was 

 tenanted by nothing but sea birds ; from the other I procured a beautiful small dove, a kingfisher, and star hug. nave 

 well examined into the nature of those birds peculiar to the Sandwich Islands, I mean those with curved bills, and can 

 confidently affirm that they bear no relation to any other species of bird that I am acquainted with. 1 hope on my 

 return, which I expect will be in March or April, to furnish you with all my notes relative to them. I am sorry to sa } 

 that I can hear nothing of the package of books which were sent from Liverpool, for which however 1 still leel greatly 

 obliged, tho' 1 have all the books you have been kind enough to send me, by me. The following comprise my natural 

 history books :-Grraves's 'Naturalist's Guide,' Bullock's 'Directions Taxidermy,' Turton s ' Linnaei Systema, and 

 Mawe's 'Collector's Pilot' and his 'Linnaean Conchology.' I regret to say that I was very unsuccessful in 

 procuring shells at the Sandwich Islands, not having a single mitre and but few cones which are well known as the 

 O. ehraeus. I have procured however a good selection of the beautiful little land-shells, amounting to about ten 

 varieties, some with reversed mouths, they apparently belong to the volutes of Mawe's Linnaean System. Insects 

 there are scarcely any ; I have found but one butterfly and a beautiful sphinx moth, no coleopterous insects or any 

 in the water ponds did I observe— these islands are certainly very barren in this respect. With regard to birds I only 

 met with one bird of prey, a brown owl which I was unable to procure. I have preserved all the tongues of the 

 different birds I obtained. Everything that I collect belongs to the Government ; but my Brother I hope will give 

 you duplicates of most of the Sandwich Island birds, also the land-shells. On the coast of Chili particularly m this 

 'bay I have met with a great variety of the Chiton, different species of the Patella comprising the cyiduU, Jbmrella 

 & infundibulum; also many turbo's and trochus and two species of land-shells; some of the chitons grow to an 

 immense size. I have measured some upon the rocks which measure more than 6 inches ; among these the C. sptnonw 

 is common, there are eight or nine varieties of them. The Buccinum Ooncholepas also is very common here, and I hope 

 my Brother will present you with a series of them. We are going this week to Concepcion, where I expect to 

 find some new varieties— the opportunities I have had for collecting have been so bad and few that I can hardly 

 call what I have procured a collection, I have not more than 100 birds, and few or scarcely any rare shells; the 

 only place where I had some chance of adding to my collection was the small island of Mauti about 400 miles 

 S.W. of Otaheite ; our stay here however was only two hours, we were unable to touch at Otaheite on 

 account of the wind being very adverse the whole time. 1 met with no gulls at the Sandwich Islands. At the 

 Galapagos, where we were for two days under a most burning sun and where I had a narrow escape of my 

 life in consequence of the great heat, I procured only one dove; several birds that I had reserved for stuffing one 

 evening were so bad m the morning that they were obliged to be thrown overboard. The heat prevented our doing 

 anything there and we were glad to leave them, the Sun at the time crossing the line. Sea birds comprising different 

 species of the tern, petrel aud pelecauus were very numerous ; I met only with one species of the penguin there, which 

 was small and nothing remarkable about it. I have procured about a dozen different varieties of land birds from here. 



L Phceornis oahensis, j>. 309. 



