Nicholas Thomas Marion Dufresne was an officer in the French navy, and
was born at St. Malo in 1729. In 1771 he was commissioned at his own
desire to restore to the island of his birth a Tahitian who had
accompanied Bougainville to France. He was also charged to ascertain if
a continent or islands existed in the Southern Ocean whence useful
products might be exported to Mauritius or Reunion.
The middle of the eighteenth century is approximately the period in
which the collection and classification of exotic plants and animals
became one of the chief objects of exploratory voyages. This was also
one of the aims of the expedition under the command of Marion and
Commerson, a botanist who had accompanied De Bougainville, was to have
accompanied Marion also. But he was unable to go, so that no botanist
and also no zoologist made the voyage. Crozet, however, who was second
in command of the _Mascarin_, has left not a few observations relating
to the birds which he saw at sea during the voyage, or in the countries
which he visited. They are embodied in his book _Nouveau Voyage à la Mer
du Sud_.
The native of Tahiti fell sick shortly after the commencement of the
voyage, and was put ashore in Madagascar, where he died. One of the
objects of the voyage thus ceased to exist. The first undiscovered land
which was sighted after leaving Madagascar was named Terre d'Espérance,
and subsequently, by Cook, Prince 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
been found on the Ile Aride, which is now known as Crozet Island, and
the whole group as the Crozet Islands. The Cape Petrel (_Daption
capensis_) nests on Tristan da Cunha and Kerguelen Island. A Cormorant
(_Phalacrocorax verrucosus_) inhabits Kerguelen Island, but its
occurrence on the Crozet Islands is doubtful. Finally, Crozet saw on the
island on which he landed a white bird, which he mistook for a white
pigeon, and argues that a country producing seeds for the nurture of
pigeons must exist in the vicinity. This bird was probably the
Sheath-bill (_Chionarchus crozettensis_) of the Crozet Islands.
The next land visited was Tasmania, where the vessels cast anchor on the
east side of the island. Like their Dutch predecessors, the French
mariners bestowed the names of European birds upon the birds which they
saw in these new lands, and it would be an idle task to seek the
equivalents of the ousels, thrushes, and turtle-doves which Crozet saw
in Tasmania. There can be no doubt, however, about his pelicans, for
_Pelecanus conspicillatus_ still nests on the east coast of the island
or on islets adjacent to the coast.
The duration of Crozet's sojourn in New Zealand was about four months in
the autumn and winter of 1772. The vessels anchored in the Bay of
Islands. Crozet has given a long enumeration of the birds which he saw
in New Zealand. We will not seek to find what his wheatears and
wagtails, starlings and larks, ousels and thrushes may have been, but we
may make an exception in favour of his black thrushes with white tufts
('grives noires à huppes blanches'). These birds were evidently Tuis
(_Prosthemadura Novæ-Zealandiæ_).
Crozet distributes the birds which he saw in New Zealand under four
heads, as birds of the forest, of the lakes, of the open country, and of
the sea-coast. In the forests were Wood Pigeons as large as fowls, and
bright blue in colour; no doubt the one pigeon of New Zealand
(_Hemiphaga Novæ-Zealandiæ_) is alluded to in this description. Two
parrots are mentioned, one of which was very large and black or dusky in
colour diversified with red and blue, and the other was a small lory,
which resembled the lories in the island of Gola.[10] It was no doubt a
_Cyanorhamphus_--a genus of which there are in New Zealand more than one
species. The large parrot may be the Kaka, although there is no blue in
the plumage of the Kaka (_Nestor meridionalis_). There is blue under the
wing of the Kea, but the Kea (_Nestor notabilis_) is not a bird of the
North, but of the South Island.
In the open country were the passerine birds, which Crozet mentions by
the names of European birds, and also a quail (_Coturnix
Novæ-Zealandiæ_) which has lately become extinct.
On the lakes were ducks and teals in abundance, and a 'poule bleue,'
similar to the 'poules bleues' of Madagascar, India, and China. The
'poule bleue' was doubtless the Swamp Hen or Purple Gallinule which,
because of its rich purple plumage and red feet, is a conspicuous object
in New Zealand landscapes. The species which inhabits New Zealand,
Tasmania, and Eastern Australia is _Porphyrio melanotus_.
[Illustration: Blue-Faced Gannet]
On the sea-coast were cormorants, curlews, and black-and-white egrets.
The curlews, which pass the summer in New Zealand and the remainder of
the year in islands of the Pacific Ocean, are of the species _Numenius
cyanopus_. They leave New Zealand in autumn, with the exception of a few
individuals which remain in favoured localities. The 'aigrettes blanches
et noires' were perhaps reef herons; the black bird of the form of an
oyster-catcher, and possessing a red bill and red feet, was doubtless
the Sooty Oyster-catcher (_Hæmatopus unicolor_), which in Tasmania is
known as the Redbill. Terns and gannets were amongst the birds of the
coastal waters. Of New Zealand terns, _Sterna frontalis_ and _S. nereis_
are the species which are seen most frequently. The 'goelette blanche'
may have been _Gygis candida_. The gannets may have been 'manches de
velours'--the name by which French mariners knew the Masked Gannet
(_Sula cyanops_). The body of this gannet is white; the wings are rich
chocolate brown. It is a bird of the tropical and sub-tropical seas of
the world and its appearance in New Zealand waters is infrequent.
From New Zealand the two vessels, now under the command of Duclesmeur,
sailed for Guam and thence to the Philippine Islands, but as Crozet's
observations on the birds which he saw after he quitted New Zealand are
of little importance, we will follow him no further.
[10] I am unable to identify the lories of Gola Island.
_London: Printed by Strangeways & Sons,
Tower Street Cambridge Circus, W.C._
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| Transcriber's Notes: |
| |
| In the fourth essay, the reference to _Purchas bis Pilgrimage_ |
| has been corrected to _Purchas his Pilgrimage_. |
| |
| Inconsistent hyphenation (Zuidland/Zuid-land) has been retained. |
| |
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