166 VOYAGES OF A NATURALIST 



Germany, France, etc., while rather more than 

 half remains to be forwarded to English manu- 

 facturing centres." 



The greater part of the country about Punta 

 Arenas is covered with virgin forest, except 

 certain large tracts which have been cleared for 

 pasture land. Clearings are made by firing the 

 trees, and during our stay there was a forest fire 

 continually raging ; indeed, it had been doing so, 

 we were told, for more than a month, and its 

 blaze on a windy night lit up the whole town 

 magnificently for our view. 



I walked through some of the cleared parts 

 of this forest. The ground was covered with a 

 thick, rich-looking grass, studded here and there 

 with bushes of berberis. There appeared to be 

 two, if not three, kinds of berberis in these 

 Straits. 



The most numerous species of birds about the 

 town were a chat-like tyrant-bird,* the adult male 

 of which is chestnut brown, with a black head and 

 underparts, and a small kestrel. I also saw and 

 obtained specimens of a bunting, f a fly catcher, J 

 and a martin ; the last-named resembles our 

 house-martin, except that it has no feathering 

 on the tarsi or toes.|| 



* Centrites niger. f Zonotrichia canicapilla. 



{ Elainea albiceps. Tachycineta meyeri. 



|| I have frequently obtained in Sussex autumn specimens of our 

 house-martin (Chelidon urbica) with these parts bare of feathers, but in 

 these cases the feathers had doubtless been worn off. 



