1534.] HOW WINGS ARE USED. 203 



species {Anas Magellanicd) is common, in pairs and in 

 small flocks, throughout the island. They do not migrate, 

 but build on the small outlying islets. This is supposed to 

 be from fear of the foxes : and it is perhaps from the same 

 cause that these birds, though very tame by day, are shy 

 and wild in the dusk of the evening. They live entirely on 

 vegetable matter. The rock-goose, so called from living 

 exclusively on the sea-beach {Anas antarctica), is common 

 both here and on the west coast of America, as far north 

 as Chile. In the deep and retired channels of Tierra del 

 Fuego, the snow-white gander, invariably accompanied by 

 his darker consort, and standing close by each other on 

 some distant rocky point, is a common feature in the 

 landscape. 



In these islands a great logger-headed duck or goose 

 {Anas brachyptera), which sometimes weighs twenty-two 

 pounds, is very abundant. These birds were in former 

 days called, from their extraordinary manner of paddling 

 and splashing upon the water, race-horses ; but now they 

 are named, much more appropriately, steamers. Their 

 wings are too small and weak to allow of flight, but by 

 their aid, partly swimming and partly flapping the surface 

 of the water, they move very quickly. The manner is 

 something like that by which the common house-duck 

 escapes when pursued by a dog ; but I am nearly sure that 

 the steamer moves its wings alternately, instead of both 

 together, as in other birds. These clumsy, logger-headed 

 ducks make such a noise and splashing, that the effect is 

 exceedingly curious. 



Thus we find in South America three birds which use 

 their wings for other purposes besides flight ; the penguin 

 as fins, the steamer as paddles, and the ostrich as sails : 

 and the apteryx of New Zealand, as well as its gigantic 

 extinct prototype the dinornis, possess only rudimentary 

 representatives of wings. The steamer is able to dive 

 only to a very short distance. It feeds entirely on shell- 

 fish from the kelp and tidal rocks ; hence the beak and 

 head for the purpose of breaking them, are surprisingly 

 heavy and strong : the head is so strong that I have 

 rarcely been able to fracture it with my geological 



immer ; and all our sportsmen soon discovered how 

 tenacious these birds were of life. When in the evening 

 pluming themselves in a flock, they make the same oda 

 mixture of sounds which bull-frogs do within the tropics. 



