252 TIERRA DEL FUEGO chap. 



channel, — -while the other is exclusively bordered by old crystal- 

 line rocks ; in the former, called Navarin Island, both foxes 

 and guanacos occur ; but in the latter, Hoste Island, although 

 similar in every respect, and only separated by a channel 

 a little more than half a mile wide, I have the word of 

 Jemmy Button for saying that neither of these animals is 

 found. 



The gloomy woods are inhabited by few birds : occasionally 

 the plaintive note of a white-tufted tyrant-flycatcher (Myiobius- 

 albiceps) may be heard, concealed near the summit of the most 

 lofty trees ; and more rarely the loud strange cry of a black 

 woodpecker, with a fine scarlet crest on its head. A little,, 

 dusky -coloured wren (Scytalopus Magellanicus) hops in a 

 skulking manner among the entangled mass of the fallen and 

 decaying trunks. But the creeper (Oxyurus tupinieri) is the 

 commonest bird in the country. Throughout the beech forests, 

 high up and low down, in the most gloomy, wet, and impene- 

 trable ravines, it may be met with. This little bird no doubt 

 appears more numerous than it really is, from its habit of 

 following with seeming curiosity any person who enters these 

 silent woods : continually uttering a harsh twitter, it flutters 

 from tree to tree, within a few feet of the intruder's face. It 

 is far from wishing for the modest concealment of the true 

 creeper (Certhia familiaris) ; nor does it, like that bird, run up 

 the trunks of trees, but industriously, after the manner of a 

 willow-wren, hops about, and searches for insects on ever\' twig 

 and branch. In the more open parts, three or four species of 

 finches, a thrush, a starling (or Icterus), two Opetiorhynchi, and 

 several hawks and owls occur. 



The absence of any species whatever in the whole class of 

 Reptiles is a marked feature in the zoology of this countr}-, as 

 well as in that of the Falkland Islands. I do not ground this 

 statement merely on my own observation, but I heard it from 

 the Spanish inhabitants of the latter place, and from Jemmy 

 l^utton with regard to Tierra del Fuego. On the banks of the 

 Santa Cruz, in 50° south,, I saw a frog ; and it is not improbable 

 that these animals, as well as lizards, may be found as far south 

 as the Strait of Magellan, where the country retains the char- 

 acter of Patagonia; but within the damp and cold limit of Tierra 

 del r\iego not one occurs. That the climate would not have 



