THE MUSEUM. 



363 



smote the ocean to a foaming flood; 

 and days of less pronounced fury when 

 the sun rode high, and glowed in 

 mockery on the freezing earth, every 

 boulder grew-glazed with a coat of ice 

 from the restless ocean, which now 

 was enveloped in a shroud of vapor, 

 with long ragged pennants streaming 

 skyward. 



These were the conditions under 

 which we observed the Raven. 



During the wildest gale they seemed 

 the most active, slowly but strangly 

 flying against the howling wind, scan- 

 ning the sea smote shore for such arti- 

 cles as pleased their particular tastes. 



On the bright mornings, even the 

 coldest, one resorted to a sunny glade 

 and sang — not a song of bold or strik- 

 ing melody, nor vigor — but one re- 

 markable for its simplicity and modesty, 

 uttered in a deep tone, delivered slow- 

 ly, and audible only at a few hundred 

 feet at best. It could most nearly be 

 imitated as follows, 00 00 00, 00 00 00 

 00 00 00. After a few repetitions of 

 these sounds he gave vent to his loud 

 croaks, probably the most popular 

 character of the Raven. 



Feb. 7. Mr. Rackliff shot one of 

 a pair that was patrolling the wind- 

 ward shore of the island where we 

 were then stopping. Dissection show- 

 ed the bird to be a female, with a per- 

 ceptible sign of activity in the avorie. 

 The stomach contained a few barna- 

 cles, the abdomn of an insect belong- 

 ing to the Hymenoptera, a few mus- 

 sles Modiola modiolus, carefully shell- 

 ed, and a few fish bones, \vith some 

 vegetable matter. The collection 

 seemed remarkable for the discrimina- 

 tion indicated. The barnacles and 

 mussles, (not mentioning other Mol- 

 lusks) occured in countless thousands. 



nevertheless the bird, shot at evening, 

 had selected less than half a dozen in- 

 dividuals of both of these animals! 



The birds, just previous to present- 

 ing themselves for a shot, had been 

 in hot pursuit of a healthy Purple 

 Sandpiper Fringa inaritiina which 

 they closely followed on the wing, 

 with the agility of a hawk. The bird 

 escaped by dodging around a sharp 

 rock, when the Ravens, without a stop 

 "resumed their course along the shore. 



The Gigantic Birds of Southern 

 Patagonia 



We are indebted to La Nature for 

 a description of some of the extinct 

 birds whose fossil remains have recent- 

 ly been discovered in the tertiary stra- 

 ta of Southern Patagonia. 



These great birds, like those of 

 Madagascar and New Zealand, were 

 incapable of flying, but they differed 

 much in their organization from the 

 dinornis and jepyornis. The latter, 

 like the ostriches and cassowaries, had 

 a head and bill relatively small for 

 their size. The gigantic birds of Pat- 

 agonia had, on the contrary, a huge 

 and strongly hooked bill (a true vul- 

 ture's bill), so much so that they might 

 lay better claim than the sepyornis to 

 be identified with the celebrated roc of 

 the Arabian Nights, if it could be ad- 

 mitted for an instant that the authors 

 of those legends had seen anything of 

 this fabulous bird but the &gg, which 

 are undoubtedly those of the sepyornis. 



The geological strata from which 

 Messrs. Carlos and Florentino Ameg- 

 hino obtained these curious debris are 

 the most ancient of the tertiary series 

 in Patagonia. This region is now a 

 desert, devoid of arborescent vegeta- 

 tion, and so destitute of water that ex- 



