Notes on a Collection of Birds from Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island

This is a report on a small collection of birds from the Tristan da Cunha group and Gough Island in the southern Atlantic Ocean made by Mr. N. SCHEER, Officer in Charge of the Weather Station at Tristan da Cunha in the years 1958—1960. The collection consists of 13 specimens from Tristan, 23 from Nightingale Island and 7 from Inaccessible Island, as well as 7 from Gough Island. A total of 22 species is represented. Field records by Mr. SCHEER have been added to the report; local names of most of the species, as noticed by Mr. SCHEER, have been given in quotation marks. Considering the recent publications on the birds of these islands (BROEKHUYSEN & MACNAE, 1949; HAGEN, 1952; RAND, 1955; ELLIOTT, 1957) the collection contributes hardly any new facts to the knowledge of this interesting insular fauna. Still it contains members of any of the known species of land birds, including one specimen of the remarkable Inaccessible Island Flightless Rail (Atlantisia rogersi) and two of the rare Grosbeak Bunting from Nightingale Island ( Nesospiza wilkinsi winkinsi); only the Grosbeak Bunting from Inaccessible Island (N. w. dunnei) is lacking in the collection. Both the most abundant bird species in the islands (Great Shearwater, Puffinus gravis: probably at least two million breeding pairs, according to ROWAN, Ibis, 94, 1952, p. 97-121), and the scarcest (Grosbeak Bunting, Nesospiza wilkinsi: probably less than 100 breeding pairs, according to ELLIOTT, 1957) are represented in the collection by a few specimens.