The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Erebus & Terror…during the years 1839 to 1843. Vol. 1

1844-1875

Expedition Reports Q115 E67 1839

London: E.W. Janson

Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), assistant surgeon and botanist of the Erebus and Terror expedition, wrote in his ‘Summary’ that this scientific voyage was the ‘most important and interesting’ since Captain Cook’s. The two sail-only ships, captained by Sir James Clark Ross, left England on the 30th September, 1839. Over the next four and a half years they visited Antarctica three times in the search for the magnetic South Pole, reaching further south than any other ship ever had. On a hiatus trip to the Bay of Islands, a New Zealand kingfisher specimen was collected (called Halcyon vagans in this image and now known as Todiramphus sanctus). This feisty and colourful little bird lives on a diet of fish, insects, and small mammals.