1769 Transit of Venus observed from Tahiti search for the alleged southern continent. HMS Bark "Endeavour" was chosen to take the astronomers and other scientists to Tahiti. James Cook was commissioned as Lieutenant and appointed to command the vessel. Cook was the obvious choice as he was an outstanding seaman with navigational qualifications, a capable astronomer and had observed a 1766 annular eclipse in Newfoundland that was communicated to the Royal Society by John Bevis. Once the "Endeavour" arrived on the island, Cook decided to set up the Venus transit observatory on shore. He required a completely stable platform which the ship could not provide and plenty
Tahiti rail accounts, the Tahiti rail was sufficiently well documented for there to be no doubt that it existed. The Tahiti rail has historically been confused with the extant Tongan subspecies of the buff-banded rail, "Gallirallus philippensis ecaudatus", which was also illustrated and described by the Forsters. In his 1783 description of the Tongan bird (wherein it was named "Rallus eucaudata"), the English ornithologist John Frederick Miller erroneously gave its locality as Tahiti, which led the Tahiti rail to be regarded as a junior synonym of the extant bird. He based his description on Forster's illustration (plate no.127) of the Tongan bird,