1835.] ORNITHOLOGY. 2 8 



guid fearlessly comes near. Its manner of feeding and its general 

 habits are very similar to those of the cheucau. 



On the coast,* a small dusky-coloured bird (Opetiorhynchus 

 Patagonicus) is very common. It is remarkable from its quiet 

 habits ; it lives entirely on the sea-beach, like a sandpiper. 

 Besides these birds only few others inhabit this broken land. 

 In my rough notes I describe the strange noises, which, although 

 frequently heard within these gloomy forests, yet scarcely disturb 

 the general silence. The yelping of the guid-guid, and the sudden 

 whew- whew of the cheucau, sometimes come from afar off, and 

 sometimes from close at hand ; the little black wren of Tierra 

 del Fuego occasionally adds its cry ; the creeper (Oxyurus) fol- 

 lows the intruder screaming and twittering ; the humming-bird 

 may be seen every now and then darting from side to side, and 

 emitting, like an insect, its shrill chirp ; lastly, from the top of 

 some lofty tree the indistinct but plaintive note of the white- 

 tufted tyrant-flycatcher (Myiobius) may be noticed. From the 

 great preponderance in most countries of certain common genera 

 of birds, such as the finches, one feels at first surprised at meet- 

 ing with the peculiar forms above enumerated, as the commonest 

 birds in any district. In central Chile two of them, namely, the 

 Oxyurus and Scytalopus, occur, although most rarely. When 

 finding, as in this case, animals which seem to play so insig- 

 nificant a part in the great scheme of nature, one is apt to wonder 

 why they were created. But it should always be recollected, that 

 in some other country perhaps they are essential members of 

 society, or at some former period may have been so. If America 

 south of 37 were sunk beneath the waters of the ocean, these 

 two birds might continue to exist in central Chile for a long 

 period, but it is very improbable that their numbers would 

 increase. We should then see a case which must inevitably have 

 happened with very many animals. 



These southern seas are frequented by several species of 

 Petrels : the largest kind, Procellaria gigantea, or nelly (que- 

 brantahuesos, or break-bones, of the Spaniards), is a common 



I may mention, as a proof of how great a difference there is between 

 the seasons of the wooded and the open parts of this coast, that on September 

 20th. in lat. 34, these birds had young ones in the nest, while among the 

 Chonos Islands, three months later in the summer, they were only laying ; 

 the difference in latitude between these two places being about 700 miles. 



U 



