South Island Kōkako (Callaeas cinerea), ‘Glaucope Cendré’, from Compléments de Buffon, Races humaines et mammifères. Volume 2, Deuxième Edition

1838 and 1840

Private Collection

Paris: Pourrat Frères

French surgeon and naturalist René Primevère Lesson (1794–1849) collected natural history specimens while serving on Duperrey’s around-the-world voyage of La Coquille (1822–25). He collected and drew hundreds of mammals, birds, fish, and invertebrate specimens from island groups scattered through the South Pacific and Australia. This engraving of a South Island Kōkako (top) appeared in his 1838 edition of Compléments de Buffon, Races humaines et mammifères. Although a New Zealand species, the bird’s habitat is listed as ‘Cochin-China in south-east Asia’ in the book (p.448).