306 TIF.RRA DEL FUEGO. 



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 in- 

 sects on every twig and bi-anch. In the more open 

 parts, three or four species of finches, a thrush, a 

 starling (or Icterus), two Opetiorhynchi, and sev- 

 eral 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 country, 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 ]ilace, and 

 from Jemmy Button with regard to Tierra del 

 Fuego. On the banks of the Santa Cruz, in 50° 

 south, I saw a fi-og ; 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 character of Patagonia ; but 

 within the damp and cold limit of Tierra del 

 Fuego not one occurs. That the climate would 

 not have suited some of the orders, such as lizards, 

 might have been foreseen ; but with respect to 

 frogs, this was not so obvious. 



Beetles occur in very small luimbers : it was 

 long before I could believe that a country as large 

 as Scotland, covered with vegetable productions 

 and with a variety of stations, could be so unpro- 

 ductive. The few which I found were alpine spe- 

 cies (Harpalidaj and Heteromidas) living under 

 stones. The vegetable-feeding Chrysomelidas, so 

 eminently characteristic of the Tropics, are here 

 almost entirely absent ;* I saw very few flies, but- 



* I believe I must except one alpine Haltica, and a single speci- 

 men of a Melasoma. Mr. Waterhouse informs me, that of the 

 Harpalidse there are eight or nine species — the forms of the greater 

 number being very peculiar ; of Heteromera, four or five species ; 

 of Rhyncophora, six or seven ; and of the following families one 



