Page:Essays on Early Ornithology and Kindred Subjects.djvu/48

32 Edward Island. Near it a collision with the Mascarin caused the partial disablement of the Marquis de Castries; the search for a southern continent was therefore abandoned, and it was resolved to visit the countries which had been discovered by Tasman in the seventeenth century.

Crozet's first observation relating to sea-birds was made on the 8th of January, 1772, about twelve days after leaving the Cape of Good Hope. Terns were then in view, and thereafter, until the 13th of that month, Terns and Gulls were frequently seen. Shortly after the latter date Du Clesmeur, who was in command of the Marquis de Castries, sighted another island which was named Ile de la Prise de Possession, and which has been renamed Marion Island, Crozet landed upon it, and relates that the sea-birds which were nesting upon it continued to sit on their eggs or to feed their young regardless of his presence. There were amongst the birds penguins, Cape petrels ('damiers'), and cormorants. Crozet also mentions divers—'plongeons.' It is doubtful to what birds he alludes under this name—a name which is usually applied to the Colymbidæ, a family which has no representative in the seas of the southern hemisphere.

The terns which Crozet saw were probably of the species Sterna vittata, which breeds on the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam. It also frequents the Tristan da Cunha Group, and Gough Island and Kerguelen Island, so that it enjoys a wide distribution in the Southern Ocean. The gulls may have been Dominican Gulls (Larus dominicanus), which are to be found at a considerable distance from any continental land. The penguins which frequent the seas adjacent to the islands which Marion named Ile de la Caverne, Iles Froides, and Ile Aride are Aptenodytes patagonica, Pygoscelis papua, Catarrhactes chrysocome, and Catarrhactes chrysolophus. The eggs of the last-named penguin have