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Waxeye
The silvereye or wax-eye (''Zosterops lateralis''), also known by its Māori name tauhou, is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all members of the genus ''Zosterops'', or the entire family Zosteropidae. In New Zealand, the silvereye was first recorded in 1832. It arrived in greater numbers in 1856, and it is assumed that a migrating flock was swept eastwards by a storm. As an apparently self-introduced bird it is protected as a native New Zealand species. Its Māori name, , means "stranger" or more literally, "new arrival". Taxonomy The silvereye was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name ''Sylvia lateralis''. There are 17 subspecies: * ''Z. l. chlorocephalus'' A. J. Campbell & S. A. White, 1910 (Capricorn silvereye)– Capricorn and Bunker Group, central Queensland, Australia * ''Z ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Latham (ornithologist)
John Latham (27 June 1740 – 4 February 1837) was an English physician, natural history, naturalist and author. His main works were ''A General Synopsis of Birds'' (1781–1801) and ''A General History of Birds'' (1821–1828). He was able to examine specimens of Australian birds that reached England in the final twenty years of the 18th century, and was responsible for providing English names for many of them. He named some of Australia's most famous birds, including the emu, sulphur-crested cockatoo, wedge-tailed eagle, superb lyrebird, Australian magpie, magpie-lark, white-throated needletail and pheasant coucal. Latham has been called the "grandfather" of Australian ornithology. He was also the first to describe the hyacinth macaw from South America. Biography John Latham was born on 27 June 1740 at Eltham in northwest Kent. He was the eldest son of John Latham (died 1788), a surgeon, and his mother, who was a descendant of the Sothebys, in Yorkshire. He was educated at Merc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Australian Bight
The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight (geography), bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern Coast, coastline of mainland Australia. There are two definitions for its extent—one by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and another by the Australian Hydrographic Service (AHS). The bight is generally considered part of the Indian Ocean, although the AHS classifies it as part of the Southern Ocean. Its coastline is characterized by cliff faces and rocky capes, making it an ideal location for whale-watching. This oceanic feature was first encountered by European explorers in 1627, and was accurately charted by English navigator Matthew Flinders in 1802. The Great Australian Bight came into existence about 50 million years ago when the supercontinent Gondwana broke apart, separating Antarctica from Australia. The Bight's waters are highly Biodiversity, biodiverse, especially in zooplankton, due to specific ocean currents. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loyalty Islands
Loyalty Islands Province (, ) is one of the three top-level administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia. It encompasses the Loyalty Islands () archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located northeast of the New Caledonian mainland of Grande Terre. The provincial government seat is at Lifou. The Loyalty Islands are a '' collectivité territoriale'' of France. The province's 2019 population was approximately 18,353 inhabitants living on almost . The native inhabitants are Melanesians who speak various Kanak languages and Polynesians who speak the Fagauvea language. History The first Western contact on record is attributed to British Captain William Raven of the whaler ''Britannia'', who was on his way in 1793 from Norfolk Island to Batavia (now called Jakarta). It is very likely, however, that the discovery and name originated with officials on the London ship ''Loyalty'', which was on a Pacific Ocean trading voyage from 1789 to 1790. The French Government demanded the removal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lifou
Lifou () is a communes of France, commune of France in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia, Pacific Ocean. Geography Lifou is made up of Lifou Island, the largest and most heavily populated of the Loyalty Islands, its smaller neighbour Tiga Island, and several uninhabited islets in between these two. All these islands lie among the Loyalty Islands, northeast of New Caledonia, New Caledonia's mainland. At , Lifou Island is the largest atoll in the world. The town of Wé, on Lifou Island, is the administrative centre of the commune of Lifou as well as the provincial seat of the Loyalty Islands Province. Climate Lifou has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification: ''Af'') that closely borders a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification: ''Am''). The average annual temperature in Lifou is . The average annual rainfall is with March as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in February, at around , and lowest in Aug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji. Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesians, Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island, Espíritu Santo, in 1606. Queirós claimed the archipelago for Spain, as part of the colonial Spanish East Indies and named it . In the 1880s, France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom claimed parts of the archipelago, and in 1906, they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through an Anglo-French condominium (international law), condominium. An independence movem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aniwa Island
Aniwa is a small island in the southernmost province of Tafea, Vanuatu. As a coral island (a raised coral atoll), it rises a mere 42 m above sea level. In the northwest is ''Itcharo (Tiaro) lagoon'', which is open to the sea. The nearest large island is Tanna, about 24 km to the southwest. History In the 1840 missionaries arrived. In 1866 John Gibson Paton and his new wife Margaret Paton arrived on the island. He had been a missionary on Tanna but he was involved with encouraging the British to make a punitive mission there so he was persona non grata. They were now successful missionaries of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria and over the next fifteen years all of the 200 inhabitants identified as Christians. Population Like the nearby West Futuna, it is a Polynesian outlier, and thus its inhabitants originally came from Samoa, and the Wallis and Futuna group instead of the Melanesians of other nearby islands, although there has been much intermarriage with Tanna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanna (island)
Tanna (sometimes misspelled ''Tana'') is an island in southern Vanuatu. Tanna is the most populous island of Tafea Province, and the third most populous in the country (after Efate and Espiritu Santo). It is home to five indigenous languages, which also rank among the most widely spoken in the whole archipelago, ranging from 3,500 to 11,500 speakers. Tanna has been featured in numerous documentaries and TV shows around the world. This is partly due to Mount Yasur, an active volcano and a major tourist attraction. It is also of interest for its vibrant Melanesian culture, through dances and festivals. The island has attracted the attention of many anthropologists for its cargo cults. Name The name ''Tanna'', first cited by James Cook, is derived from the word ''tana'' in the Kwamera language, meaning 'earth'. Etymologically, ''Tanna'' goes back to Proto-Oceanic *''tanoq'', from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian * ''taneq'', with the same meaning. Geography Tanna is long and wide, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands ( ; Moriori language, Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand, and consisting of about 10 islands within an approximate radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island, Pitt Island (''Rangiauria''). They include New Zealand's easternmost point, the Forty-Fours. Some of the islands, formerly cleared for farming, are now preserved as Protected areas of New Zealand, nature reserves to conservation in New Zealand, conserve some of the unique flora and fauna. The islands were uninhabited when the Moriori people arrived around 1500 CE and developed Nunuku-whenua, a peaceful way of life. In 1835, members of the Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama Māori iwi from the North Island of New Zealand invaded the islands and Moriori genocide, nearly exterminated the Moriori, slavery, enslaving the survivors. In the period of European colonisation, the New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of island countries, sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The Geography of New Zealand, country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps (), owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. Capital of New Zealand, New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and subsequently developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with the neighbouring Phillip Island (Norfolk Island), Phillip Island and Nepean Island (Norfolk Island), Nepean Island, the three islands collectively form the Territory of Norfolk Island. At the 2021 Australian census, 2021 census, it had 2,188 inhabitants living on a total area of about . Its capital is Kingston, Norfolk Island, Kingston. East Polynesians were the first to settle Norfolk Island, but they had already departed when Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain settled it as part of its 1788 colonisation of Australia. The island served as a penal colony, convict penal settlement from 6 March 1788 until 5 May 1855, except for an 11-year hiatus between 15 February 1814 and 6 June 1825, when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tasmania
Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the List of islands by area#Islands, 26th-largest island in the world, and the List of islands of Tasmania, surrounding 1000 islands. It is Australia's smallest and least populous state, with 573,479 residents . The List of Australian capital cities, state capital and largest city is Hobart, with around 40% of the population living in the Greater Hobart area. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2017. Tasmania is the most decentralised state in Australia, with the lowest proportion of its residents living within its capital city. Tasmania's main island was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples, who today generally identify as Palawa or Pakana. It is believed that Abori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flinders Island
Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Today Flinders Island is part of the state of Tasmania, Australia. It is from Cape Portland, Tasmania, Cape Portland and is located on 40° south, a latitude, zone known as the Roaring Forties. History Prehistory Flinders Island was first inhabited at least 35,000 years ago, when people made their way from Australia across the then land-bridge which is now Bass Strait. A population remained until about 4,500 years ago, succumbing to thirst and hunger following an acute El Niño climate shift. European Arrival Some of the south-eastern islands of the Furneaux Group were first recorded in 1773 by British navigator Tobias Furneaux, commander of , the support vessel with James Cook on Second voyage of James Cook, Cook's second voyage. In February 1798, British navigator Matthew Flinders charted some of the southern islands, using one of the schooner '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
