Letters, Announcements, ^c. 233 



the Island of Desolation ; and there, in Tuesday Bay, where we 

 spent a few days, my friend Dr. Campbell (to whom I am in- 

 debted for the greater number of the birds I have collected) shot 

 an excellent male specimen of the Dafila * of which I sent you 

 a female. Should the species prove to be new, it will be a 

 curious instance of one neglected on account of its commonness, 

 as it is one of the most plentiful of the Anatidce or the Strait. I 

 would send you a description ; but I am overwhelmed with letters 

 at present, for we expect to despatch a bag by a steamer which 

 passes through the Strait from Valparaiso in a week's time, and 

 I must therefore content myself with waiting till I send off the 

 specimens at the end of the season. We spent some time ex- 

 amining the ports on both sides of the western portion of the 

 Strait ; and in San Nicolas Bay (Patagonia) I got a specimen of 

 a larger Grebe than any I have yet sent home. In various 

 localities we saw examples of Chloephaga poliocephala, and I have 

 got another specimen of it. Since we came here I have got ex- 

 amples of Troglodytes magellanicus f and Hirundo meyeni, which 

 were not included in my former collections, as well as a female 

 specimen of Theristicus melanopis, superior, I think, to that 

 which I sent before. I have preserved its sternum, which has a 

 very deep keel ; and the scapulae are broad. I found the stomach 

 crammed with worms and large larvse. The portion of the 

 trachea below the insertion of the sterno-tracheal muscles, though 

 presenting no striking peculiarity of form, had the bony rings 

 anchylosed so as to form an immoveable tube. I have now be- 

 tween twenty and thirty birds' skins, and have preserved the 

 sterna whenever I found it practicable. Except a few Gulls, 

 Petrels, and Cormorants, I fear I am scarcely likely to get any 

 more species. I had hoped to have sent you before now some 

 notes on the anatomy of the Steamer-Duck, which I had begun 

 to prepare ; but an attack of rheumatism in my right wrist dis- 

 abled my hand for a considerable time, so that I have been kept 

 back in my operations. We are likely to remain in the Chan- 

 nels until the month of May, and then probably return to winter 



* [Cy. Ibis, 1868, p. 189. no. 40.— Ed.] 

 t [Qu. potiu.s T, honiensis, Lesson? — Ed.] 



