208 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



of chorus, and waving their wings upward in a very singular fashion ; but 

 often, when they are almost out of sight, they suddenly wheel about and 

 hurry back with fresh zeal to go through the whole annoying performance 

 again. Their flight being so serene at such times, it is very easy to shoot 

 them. Many persons, however, and particularly English residents, have a 

 squeamish repugnance against eating their flesh. But the flavour of birds 

 does not seem to depend altogether on their peculiar food ; two species 

 are sometimes equally good that feed very differently. The Burrowing 

 Parrot [Conurus patachonicus) is very bitter in taste, and yet feeds on the 

 same seeds as the Partridge and wild Pigeon ; the Glossy Ibis eats the 

 same food as the most delicious-flavoured Snipes, and yet, when cooked, 

 its fat emits a sickening smell that renders it unfit for human food. 

 Those who have eaten this Gull have found it rich and finely flavoured, 

 without any taint or rankness. 



"The Gulls seem everywhere preeminent among the feathered race for 

 the singular beauty of their flight. Our bird forms no exception, but all 

 its aerial movements are characterized with the same grace and buoyancy 

 that have been observed in the allied species in other continents. On a 

 still, hot day they love to soar to a vast height, and at such times appear 

 like diminutive white specks on the sky. In fair weather their flight is 

 always placid, a large body of them seen at a distance appearing to travel 

 with the serene motion of a cloud. 



"When near, it is pleasing to see the wonderful precision with which 

 each bird keeps its relative place in the flock. But it is in a high wind 

 the Gull's flight is particularly interesting; casually observed it seems 

 altogether wild and irregular. The bird toils onward, alternately turning 

 the upper and under surface of its wings, now struck motionless in mid- 

 air, and again sweeping onward with redoubled velocity, now dropping 

 downward until it nears the surface, and soaring anon toward the sky, 

 apparently without an effort of its own, but borne aloft by the resistless 

 violence of the wind." (Hudson, P. Z. S. 1871, pp. 4-7.) 



"Inconceivable numbers of birds are, no doubt, continually passing over 

 us unseen. It was once a matter of wonder to me that flocks of Swans 

 should almost always appear flying past after a shower, even when none 

 had been visible for a long time before, and when they must have come 

 from great distances. But the simple reason soon occurred to me, that 

 after rain a Swan may be visible at a vastly greater distance than during 



