Chap, xxi.] WINGLESS PXIES AND GNATS. 4S5 



grass close to the houses, looking just like farm-yard geese. 

 The birds take no notice of a gun, but I soon found that they 

 were very quick at seeing a bolas when I carried one, well 

 knowing that they were going to be molested. I could not 

 catch one with the bone bolas, though I came very near it, 

 and should have succeeded with a little practice. The bone 

 bolas comes curiously near that of the Esquimaux in structure. 

 The Esquimaux bolas, used also for catching birds, has more 

 than three balls, and these are made of ivory. 



Near Darwin Harbour, I found some Dipterous insects with 

 rudimentary wings, a species of Fly {Muscidir) and a species of 

 Gnat {Tipulidce), which are of especial interest because similar 

 Diptera incapable of flight occur, as already described,* at 

 Kerguelen's Land, and the Fly at least appears to be of the 

 same genus as one of the Kerguelen Flies ; a genus which has 

 been hitherto found nowhere else but in Kerguelen's Land 

 and Marion Island. It is of importance to find further con- 

 nections between Fuegia and the distant Kerguelen's Land, 

 the connections between which regions in the matter of the 

 flora were so long ago demonstrated by Sir Joseph Hooker. 



The Fly has small rudiments of wings. It appears closely 

 allied to Amalopteryx maritiina (Eaton) of Kerguelen's Land, 

 and corresponds closely to that insect in its habits. The flies 

 were found near Darwin Harbour, only on the sea-coast, in 

 hollows under overhanging slabs of the sandstone rock, and 

 sheltering in crevices. They spring nimbly like fleas or small 

 grasshoppers, and are a little difficult to catch. They cannot 

 fly at all. 



The Rev. H. C. Lory, late Colonial Chaplain in the Falk- 

 land Islands, writes to me that these flies inhabit in immense 

 numbers dried matted seaweed which is to be found on the 

 sea-beaches. He says that they escape in hundreds from the 

 seaweed masses when they are broken up, and that the masses 

 are full of the chrysalides of the flies. 



The Gnats which I found, also cannot fly, having even 

 smaller rudiments of wings than the flies. They were found 

 crawling on rocks, on the shore in sheltered places, and also 

 on the sunny sheltered face of a peat-bank, which formed the 

 cattle fence across the narrow neck of the promontory of 

 Lafonia. The gnats run quickly, and when in danger draw 

 up their legs and drop amongst the gra?s in order to escape. 

 A Gnat with rudimentary wings occurs also in Kergeulen's 

 Land. Some species of flies and gnats with rudimentary 

 wings are known in Europe and elsewhere, and Prof. West- 

 wood has shown me an apterous fly which occurs in England 

 * See pp. 167, 16S. 



