142 Cruise of the "Alert" 



crustaceans, and mingled with them a number of milk- coloured 

 annelids, a species of tomopteris, about one-eighth of an inch in 

 length. A fringe of lateral appendages bordered its long, slender 

 body, from whose anterior extremity projected two long antennae, 

 curving gracefully upwards and backwards. There were fifteen 

 pairs of parapodia, the ends of which were furnished with tufts 

 of cirri, which acted as swimming paddles for propulsion. 



Our stay at Coquimbo this season extended from the 4th of 

 May to the 14th of June, having been somewhat prolonged owing 

 to the occurrence of a case of small-pox on board. Our principal 

 amusement consisted in shooting excursions after the golden 

 plover, or "pachuros," as the Chilians call them. These birds 

 frequent the sandy plains, which form an elevated table -land, 

 fringing the bases of the coast range of hills. One of our 

 shooting-grounds was on a rather bare plain, encircling the base 

 of a pyramidal hill called the Pan de Azucar, which lay at a 

 distance of about eight miles from Coquimbo. It was a great 

 undulating plain of waste sandy ground, with stunted shrubs 

 growing here and there, but not affording any cover. Walking 

 over it was laborious, for the ground was almost everywhere 

 riddled with the burrows of the upncerthia, a sort of ant-thrush, 

 which seems to make extensive underground tunnels in search of 

 insect larvae. I obtained a specimen, and found its stomach 

 crammed full of insects. This bird is smaller than the U. dume- 

 toria, and has a much shorter bill ; moreover, in flying, the 

 secondary feathers, which are of a brick-red colour, are very 

 conspicuous. Sometimes, when walking over a riddled patch of 

 ground, one heard a curious half-smothered " took, took," not 

 unlike the cry of a ctenomys ; and on treading firmly over the 

 place from whence the noise seemed to issue, no sound would be 

 audible for a minute or two, when the same noise would go on 

 again from a place a yard or so away. The bird, of course, had 

 moved along, for the tunnels communicate so that it is able to 

 travel underground over a considerable area. The burrows of 



