56 Wonders of the Bird World 



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, allow- 

 ing the observer to come within a few yards of them without 

 accelerating 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 progression 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, 

 I 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 

 tolerable chance of success. It is in general in such situ- 

 ations 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 dimen- 

 sions 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 grey down. The young brood appear 



