OCR Text |
Show 1877.] DUKE-OF-YORK ISLAND, ETC. 97 April 1875 in the « John Wesley,' and, after a visit to several mission- stations, arrived at Port Hunter in the August following. Here he at once proceeded to collect living specimens for the Society, and in September 1875 wrote to m e announcing the dispatch to Sydney1 of a number of birds, of which, I regret to say, only the Cassowaries eventually reached us alive2. In replying to M r. Brown, I took the opportunity of pointing out to him the very interesting nature of the locality in which he was resident, and of assuring him that I would do m y best to see that any zoological specimens that he might be able to collect there were properly worked out, and that due credit was given to him. Fig. 1. Outline M a p of Duke-of-York Island, N e w Britain, and N e w Ireland, from the Admiralty Chart. M r . Brown returned to Sydney in October last, bringing with him the collection which we have before us this evening, in making which he had, I believe, the assistance of Mr. Cockerell, a young Australian naturalist and collector. Mr. Brown's letters, however, do not contain details upon the manner, nor, I regret to say in many cases, upon the exact localities in which his specimens were obtained j but I gather 1 See extract from his letter, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 2. 2 See P.Z.S. 1876, p. 413, where these birds are determined as Casuarius bennetti. But until these birds are adult this determination must be considered provisional only. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1877, No. VII. 7 |