67 



the sea, small forestclad islands and mighty bare rocks as 

 a battlement before those snowmountains, made it all the 

 more beautiful to behold. 



I went ashore as soon as I could and being away from 

 the few huts that formed the settlement I came upon small 

 families of Steamer Ducks or Pato Vapores which were 

 sitting on the stones projecting out of the sea. 



They belonged all to the large nonfltiing species and 

 here better than anywhere before, I had the opportunity 

 of studying them as they were quite tame. 



There were generally a pair of old birds and some young 

 ones. The old birds were grey — the male the clearest 

 of the two — both birds with yellow bills. The young 

 birds were of a more brownish grey on the sides especially 

 and had darker bills in which the yellow was mixed with 

 olive green; these birds had also dark legs. 



The young birds were ever heavier looking than the 

 parents and most certainly did not fly nor attempt to do so. 



They all dived with great diligence. 



In this same neighbourhoud I saw many Shags with white 

 underside but hlack foreneck {Ph. magellanicus Gm.) and on 

 some I noticed red fleshy warts round the base of the bill. 



A little farther I came upon small families of Antarctic 

 Geese (Kaiiks is the native name there, whilst in the south 

 they call them kaikénos) and had good opportunity to 

 study them. 



The adult males are snow white with black bill, large 

 glistering black eyes and light citron yellow legs and feet, 

 they look robust strong birds. 



The adult female has a yellowish fleshcoloured bill, a 

 yellowish ring round the eyes and pale yellow legs. Their 

 general colour is dark brown and black finely streaked 

 with white; the head is brown. The shoulders, back and 

 tail are white and very conspicuous when the birds fly. 



The young birds of the year before they have moulted 

 are more or less similar to the female but the colours 

 are dull, the tail is white with black spots and the bill 

 and legs are blackish. 



Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XXXV. 



