68 ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 



the east island, from which, also, those described by the French naturalists came, 

 and likewise that given in the Appendix to Dixon's Voyage. I have no doubt 

 that it is peculiar to this group, for the foregoing species, which in the neighbour- 

 ing mainland of Tierra del Fuego supplies its place and has precisely the same 

 habits, has been examined by Mr. Gould and is considered distinct. The O. au- 

 tarcticus has long been noticed by voyagers to the Falkland Islands from its 

 extreme tameness : in the year 1763 Pernety states it was so tame that it would 

 almost perch on his finger, and that in half an hour he killed ten with a wand. 



4. Opetiorhynchus nigrofumosus. G. R. Gray. 



Plate XX. 



Uppucertliia nigrofumosa, D'Orb. et Lafr. Mag. de Zool. 1838, p. 23. 

 Opetiorhynchus lanceolatiis, Gould, MS. and on plate XX. 



My specimen was killed at Coquimbo, on the coast of Chile. It differs from 

 O. Patagonicus in its larger size, much stronger feet and bill, and more dusky 

 plumage, and in the white streak over the eye being less plainly marked. In this 

 species the red band, which extends from the body obliquely across the wings in 

 all the species, reaches to the third primary, whereas in O. Patagonicus, O. vitlgaris, 

 and O. anlarcticus, that feather is not marked, or so faintly, as scarcely to be 

 distinguishable. In the genus Furnarius, the wing feathers are marked in an 

 analogous manner. I saw this species (as I believe) on the coast near the mouth 

 of the valley of Copiapo. 



I Avill now make a few remarks on the habits of these three coast species. 

 The first, O. antarcticus, is confined, as I have every reason to believe, to the 

 Falkland Islands. The second inhabits Tierra del Fuego, and in Chiloe and 

 Central Chile is replaced by the local variety with a long beak, and this still 

 further northward by the O. nigrofumosus. On the east side of the continent I do 

 not believe these marine species extend so far northward. I never saw one on the 

 shores of the Plata, but they occur in Central Patagonia. These birds live 

 almost exclusively on the sea beach, whether formed of shingle or rock, and feed 

 just above the surf on the matter thrown up by the waves. The pebbly beds of 

 large rivers sometimes tempt a solitary pair to wander far from the coast. Thus 

 at Santa Cruz I saw one at least one hundred miles inland, and I several times 

 observed the same thing in Chile, which has likewise been remarked by Kittlitz, 

 who has given a very faithful account of the habits of O. Patagonicus. I must 

 add that I also saw this bird in the stony and arid valleys in the Cordillera, at a 

 height of at least 8000 feet. In Tierra del Fuego I scarcely ever saw one twenty 

 yards from the beach, and both there and at the Falkland Islands they may fre- 



