AVES ANATID^. 497 



ing the fronds of the kelp for the animals to be found thereon, or diving 

 for mussels, which appear to be one of their staple articles of diet, as I 

 always found fragments of the shells in the stomachs of those which I 

 examined. The stomach is a most powerful organ, with very thick mus- 

 cular coats, and the lower part of the windpipe or trachea of the male 

 possesses an enlargement of considerable size. This, which is likewise to 

 be met with in the males of many other species of ducks, serves to modify 

 the voice. At the Falkland Islands, in common with many other birds, 

 the steamer-ducks are much tamer than they are in the Strait of Magellan, 

 allowing the observer to come within a few yards of them without acceler- 

 ating their speed. When alarmed at the prospect of impending danger 

 however, they lose no time in getting up steam, paddling through the 

 water at a marvellous rate by dint of flapping their little wings, the motion 

 of which is so excessively rapid, that it is difficult to convince one's self 

 that they are not revolving, leaving a long wake of foam like that produced 

 by a miniature steamer behind them, and not ceasing this method of pro- 

 gression till a safe distance has intervened between them and the object 

 of their dread. They often assist their escape, in addition, by diving, and 

 coming up to the surface at a distance of many yards in a direction upon 

 which it is impossible to calculate, when they show their great heads for 

 a moment, and then repeat the manoeuvre. Though the rate of their 

 speed has, 1 think, been considerably over-estimated by Captain King, it 

 is yet so great as to render it impossible for a boat, however well manned, 

 to overtake them, except by hemming them in to some small cove, where 

 a gun may be used with a tolerable chance of success. It is in general 

 in such situations that those birds which can fly take to the wing, and 

 those which cannot have recourse to their diving powers. Even when hit 

 they very frequently escape, for unless they receive a very heavy charge 

 of shot, their coat of down and feathers protects them from serious injury. 

 Their nests, in general placed on a sloping bank near the sea, and under 

 the shelter of a low bush, are formed principally of grass. In these four 

 or five large cream-coloured eggs (the dimensions of which may be roughly 

 stated as three and a half by two and a quarter inches) are deposited, and 

 covered with a layer of soft gray down. The young brood appear to be 

 tended by the parent birds for a considerable period after they leave the 

 egg, and may often be seen swimming after them. Like the old birds, 

 they swim and dive actively, coming up after the plunge at a long dis- 



