JUAN FERNANDEZ. 539 



island, and especially well on banks beneath the cliffs close to 

 the sea-shore. The Strawberries are large and fine, but white in 

 colour, being, I believe, a Spanish cultivated variety. If so, they 

 have not at all reverted to the parent wild form, either in colour 

 or size ; a few only were just beginning to ripen. 



At this time of the year the foliage of the Myrtles, though 

 evergreen, looks half dead, and these trees thus show out con- 

 spicuously amongst the rest. Here and there examples of the 

 Magnoliaceous Tree " Winter's Bark " (Dryrnis winteri), a tree 

 common in the Straits of Magellan were covered with showy 

 white flowers, and large patches of a small species of Dock 

 (fiumex) in full flower showed out red amongst the general 

 green, whilst a white-flowered Iris, growing socially formed well- 

 marked patches of white. A tall Bignoniaceous Shrub, which 

 was very common, was covered with dark blue tubular flowers. 



Hovering over the flowering bushes and trees, were every- 

 where to be seen two species of Humming-Birds ; one of which 

 (Uustephanus Femandensis) is peculiar to the island, whilst the 

 other (E. galeritus) of the same genus occurs also on the main 

 land. A further closely allied but peculiar species occurs in the 

 island named by the Spaniards " Mas-afuera," or farther out, 

 because it lies 90 miles to the westward of Juan Fernandez and 

 so much farther from the Chilian Coast. 



The Humming-Birds were extremely abundant, hovering in 

 every bush. In the species peculiar to the Island of Juan Fer- 

 nandez the male is very different in plumage from the female, 

 being of a chocolate colour, with an iridescent golden-brown 

 patch on the head, whilst the female is green. So different are 

 the two sexes that they were formerly supposed to represent two 

 distinct species, as has happened in the case of so many other 

 birds. This endemic Humming-Bird seemed more abundant 

 than the continental one. Any number of specimens might 

 have been shot. 



In skinning some of the birds which I killed, I noticed that 

 the feathers at the base of the bill and on the front of the head 

 were clogged and coloured yellow with pollen. The birds, no 

 doubt, in common with other species of Humming-Birds, and 

 other flower-frequenting birds, such as the Myzomelida \ are 



