48 



The male which is the larger of the two is clear grey 

 with a white breast and clear yellow bill. The tail is 

 elongated and the point carried upright when he swims. 



The female is much smaller than the male. The head 

 is brown and the rest of the body of a beautiful wine 

 colour with white breast. The bill is hroicn. I saw small 

 flocks of these birds on the seashore near Jente Grande 

 and a good many pairs on the lagoons inland. 



I saw these birds fly repeatedly high over head ; at 

 the sea coast I saw them fly from the lakes inland towards 

 the shore and vice-versa. 



I have not seen a single bird of the non-flying species 

 in this part of Tierra del Fuego. 



My kind hosts at Jente Grande who most kindly helped 

 me in my researches, where quite convinced of the validity 

 of the two species. So was mr. Cameron the director of 

 the Jente Grande Company. 



The small kind is found a good deal inland, they told 

 me, but the big one is entirely confined to the sea. This 

 quite agrees with my observations. 



A female and a young male of the non-flying small 

 species (both from the Falklands) are in the Leyden 

 museum and there is an adult pair of this kind in the 

 Buenos Ayres museum and there are several females in 

 the British museum. 



In the lagoons round Jente Grande the birds were very 

 tame and if I rode round a lagoon or stood on the edge 

 of the water the pairs of small Steamer Ducks would come 

 quite near to look at me. 



The white speculum in the wing is present in both 

 species. 



When alarmed these birds sometimes get over the 

 water without getting quite clear of it. They then rise 

 over the water touching it with the jmints of their wings 

 as they fly away. 



This is however a quite different way of progressing 

 from what the Tach. cinereiis does. It resembles the way 

 a coot sometimes gets away. The Tach. cinereiis does not 



Notes from tlie Leyden Miuseum, Vol. XXXV^ 



