2SS FAUNA OF CHONOS ISLANDS, [chap. xni. 



yelping somewhere in the forest. Just as with the cheucau, 

 a person will sometimes hear the bark close by, but in vain 

 may endeavour by watching, and with still less chance by 

 beating the bushes, to see the bird ; yet at other times the 

 guid-guid fearlessly comes near. Its manner of feeding 

 and its general habits are very similar to those of the 

 cheucau. 



On the coast,* a small dusky-coloured bird [Opetiorhynchus 

 Patagonicus) is very common. It is remarkable from its 

 quiet habits ; it lives entirely on the sea-beach, like a sand- 

 piper. Besides these birds only few others inhabit this 

 broken land. In my rough notes I describe the strange 

 noises, which, although frequently heard within these 

 gloomy forests, yet scarcely disturb the general silence. 

 The yelping of the guid-guid, and the sudden whew- 

 whew of the cheucau, sometimes come from afar off, and 

 sometimes from close at hand ; the little black wren of 

 Tierra del Fuego occasionally adds its cry ; the creeper 

 {Oxyurus) follows the intruder screaming and twittering ; 

 the humming-bird may be seen every now and then darting 

 from side to side, and emitting, like an insect, its shrill 

 chirp ; lastly, from the top of some lofty tree the indistinct 

 but plaintive note of the white-tufted tyrant-flycatcher 

 {Myiohius) may be noticed. From the great preponderance 

 in most countries of certain common genera of birds, such 

 as the finches, one feels at first surprised at meeting with 

 the peculiar forms above enumerated, as the commonest 

 birds in any district. In Central Chile two of them, 

 namely, the Oxyurus and Scytalopus, occur, although 

 most rarely. When finding, as in this case, animals which 

 seem to play so insignificant a part in the great scheme 

 of nature, one is apt to wonder why they were created. 

 But it should always be recollected, that in some other 

 country perhaps they are essential members of society, 

 or at some former period may have been so. If America 

 south of 37° were sunk beneath the waters of the ocean, 

 these two birds might continue to exist in Central Chile 

 for a long period, but it is very improbable that their 

 numbers would increase. We should then see a case 



* I may mention, as a proof of how great a diiFerence there is between the 

 seasons of the wooded and the open parts of this coast, that on September 20th 

 in lat 34°, these bird had young ones in the nest, while amon^ the Chonos 

 Islands, three months later in the summer, they were only laying ; the difference 

 in latitude between these two places being about 700 miles. 



