ZOOLOGY ORNITHOLOGY. 305 



spondence of the clifts is far from proving any junc- 

 tion, because such clifts generally are formed by 

 the intersection of sloping deposits, which, before 

 the elevation of the land, had been accumulated 

 near the then existing shores. It is, however, a re- 

 markable coincidence, that in the two large islands- 

 cut off by the Beagle Channel from the rest of Ti- 

 erra del Fuego, one has cliffs composed of matter 

 that may be called stratified alluvium, which front 

 similar ones on the opposite side of the channel, 

 while the other is exclusively bordered by old crys- 

 talline 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 littlo more than half 

 a mile wide, I have the word of Jemmy Button for 

 saying that neither of these animals are 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 Magel- 

 lanicus) hops in a skulking manner among the en- 

 tangled mass of the fallen and decaying trunks. 

 But the creeper (Oxyurus tupinieri) is the com- 

 monest bird in the country. Throughout the beech 

 forests, high up and low down, in the most gloomy, 

 wet, and impenetrable ravines, it may be met with. 

 This little bird no doubt appeal's 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 froni 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 



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