47 



that there are tiro species. Much about it has been 

 talked and written but the differences between the two 

 species have never been properly put on record. 



The typical Tachi/eres cinereus^ the Steamer Duck of the 

 Seafarers is a big heavy bird which is quite unable to fly, 

 not only when it is old, but even less so when just full 

 grown. This bird can not even rise above the water but 

 when alarmed gets away by striking into the water with 

 its wings so that a great splashing takes place. 



They are absolutely confined to the sea and I have seen 

 great numbers of them in the Smith channel. In Eden-har- 

 bour Indian reach as many as 42 together. These flocks 

 consisted of pairs of old birds with full grown young of 

 the year. 



In this species both sexes are grey. The male has a pale 

 or pearl-grey head and neck and a bright yellow bill. In 

 the female the grey is duller and the head not strikingly 

 paler than the rest of the body. The bill is also yellow 

 but not quite so clear in colour. In the young birds 

 seen by me in the Smith channel and later on in Melinka 

 near the coast of the most northern island of the Chonos- 

 Archipelago the plumage is in some parts tinged with 

 broivnish grey, but not enough to hide the grey general 

 aspect. The bill is mixed with dark greenish colour, and 

 the legs are dark. 



These birds, evidently birds of the year, as they were 

 under the guidance of a pair of adults, as was very easily 

 seen at Melinka, where they were quite tame, were even 

 heavier or more clumsy-looking than the old birds and 

 could most certainly not fly. They are expert divers. 



I killed a young male at Eden-harbour and skinned it. 

 The stomach was full of ground crabs or crustaceans. There 

 were enormously powerful muscles over the cranium and very 

 small ones on the breast which carried a very shallow keel. 



The second or flying species is quite a different bird. 

 To begin with, both sexes are much smaller than the pre- 

 ceeding one and the female is much smaller than the male. 

 The female is also coloured quite differently. 



Notes frora tlie Leyden Museum, Vol. XXXV. 



