of the Falkland Islands. ' 157 



East Falkland. I have seen the young ones, though I have 

 never found the nest. 



26. Nycticorax gardeni (Jard.). (Night-Heron.) 

 When I was at Hope Place, in December 1859, 1 went to see 



a breeding-place or rookery of these Herons. The places selected 

 for laying were the tufts of grass near a freshwater pond, the 

 whole of one side of which was covered with them. In some of 

 the nests, which were composed of a few coarse sticks, were young 

 ones half-grown ; in othei's, eggs (three in number), some hard 

 sat upon, and some fresh. There could not have been less than 

 a hundred pairs at this spot, and, as they seemed never to have 

 been disturbed, they were very tame. Whether this bird re- 

 mains with us during the winter I cannot say, never having 

 been in the neighbourhoods which they frequent during that 

 period of the year. 



27. Platalea ajaja, Linn. 



A specimen of the Spoonbill was shot in a pond near Kidney 

 Cove in July 1860. The bird was in poor condition. I also 

 found the remnants of another specimen in Whalebone Bay in 

 the same year. 



28. FULICA CHLOROPOIDES, King? 



A Coot, probably of this species, was shot in Stanley Harbour 

 and brought to me in the latter part of 1859. 



29. Chloephaga magellanica (Gm.). (Upland Goose.) 

 This Goose is found abundantly everywhere in East Falkland. 



At Cow Bay, where the grass is short and sweet. Rabbits, Up- 

 land Geese, and Jackass Penguins are so plentiful that the place 

 is called " the Farm-yard." The Upland Goose is easily domes- 

 ticated, and very readily takes to eating corn. It breeds all over 

 the country, as well as on the adjoining islets, and on this point 

 Mr. Darwin seems to have made a mistake, unless the disap- 

 pearance of the Fox from East Falkland has caused a change in 

 its habits in this respect. 



These Geese sometimes lay in the long grass, and at other 

 times in the bushes on the banks of streams. The nest is rudely 

 formed of grass till the laying is completed, when the bottom is 

 lined with down. This is one way of telling whether the eggs 



