190 FALKLAND ISLANDS. [CHAP. is. 



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 loggerheaded 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 appro- 

 priately, 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, loggerheaded 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 Apteryz of 

 New Zealand, as well as its gigantic extinct prototype the 

 Deinornis, 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 scarcely been able to 

 fracture it with my geological hammer ; 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 odd 

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



In Tierra del Fuego, as well as at the Falkland Islands, I made 

 many observations on the lower marine animals,* but they are of 



* I was surprised to find, on counting the eggs of a large white Doris 

 (this sea-slug was three and a half inches long), how extraordinarily 

 numerous they were. From t\vo to five eggs (each three-thousandths of 

 an inch in diameter) were contained in a spherical little case. These 

 were arranged two deep in transverse rows forming a ribbon. The ribbon 

 adhered by its edge to the rock in an oval spire. One which I found, 

 measured nearly twenty inches in length and half in breadth. By 

 counting how many balls were contained in a tenth of an inch in the row, 



