Report of the Zoological Collections Made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean During the Voyage of the H.M.S. 'Alert' 1881-2

London: Trustees, 1884. Hardcover. Good + condition. Important volume on discoveries of marine animals and skulls of Torres Straits islanders, made during the voyage of HMS Alert (1878-1882), a surveying expedition that explored the waters in and around the eastern and northern coasts of Australia, as well as around Patagonia, Polynesia and the Mascarene Island group in the Indian Ocean. British Navy surgeon and zoologist Richard Coppinger (1847-1910), accompanied the expedition and collected hundreds of specimens, some illustrated in this volume. Alert spent four months near Thursday Island (off Northern Queensland) in the Torres Strait. Coppinger collected skull specimens illustrated in this volume (it is unclear how they came into his possession). The Report states that specimen I is ‘the skull of the last chief of the island of Nagheer'; the caption on the plate reads "Skulls of Torres Straits Islanders". (Plates I & II, following p684).

Contents include: Mammalia, by O. Thomas; Aves, by R. B. Sharpe, Reptilia, Batrachia, Pisces by A. Gunther, Mollusca by E. A. Smith, Echinodermata by F. J. Bell, Crustacea by E. J. Miers, Coleoptera by C. O. Waterhouse, Lepidoptera by A. G. Butler, and Alcyonaria and Spongiida, by S. O. Ridley.

Thick 8vo. pp xxvi, 684pp, 54 lithographic plates, 2 partly colored. Dark blue gilt buckram. Gilt title to spine, as well as circular paper library label at top of spine. Spine ends rubbed, some cracking of cloth at top of spine along edge of boards. Library shelf number in gilt stamped on spine. Presentation bookplate at front paste down, British Museum of Natural History, presented by the Trustees of the British Museum. Front free end paper with deaccession stamp at the label of the Croydon Public Libraries. Croydon stamp at title page, contents, preface, verso of plates at rear of volume. OCLC: 217160699.