64 . TERRA DEL FUEGO TO OTAHITE CHAP, iv 



9th. This morning some seaweed floated past the ship, 

 and my servant declares that he saw a beetle fly over her. 

 I do not believe he would deceive me, and he certainly 

 knows what a beetle is, as he has these three years been 

 often employed in taking them for me. 



1 6th. Went in the boat and killed Procellaria velox, 

 Nectris munda and fuliginosa, which two last are a new 

 genus between Procellaria and Diomedea : this we reckon a 

 great acquisition to our bird collection. 



1*7 th. Saw several porpoises without any " pinna dorsalis," 

 black on the back, white under the belly and on the nose. 

 We saw also an albatross different from any other I have 

 seen, it being black all over, except the head and bill, which 

 were white. 



21 st. A bird not seen before attended the ship; it was 

 about the size of a pigeon, black above and light-coloured 

 underneath. It darted swiftly along the surface of the 

 water in the same manner as I have observed the Nectris to 

 do, of which genus it is probably a species. 



2Qth. Albatrosses began to be much less plentiful than 

 they have been (lat. 41 8'). 



3rd March. Killed Procellaria velox, velificans, sordida, 

 melanopus, lugens, agilis, and Diomedea exulans. The alba- 

 tross was very brown, exactly the same as the first I killed, 

 which, if I mistake not, was nearly in the same latitude on 

 the other side of the continent. Caught Holothuria obtusata, 

 Phyllodoce velella, exactly the same as those taken on the 

 other side of the continent, except in size, which in these 

 did not exceed that of an English sixpence. Dagysa vitrea 

 was also the same as that taken off Kio de Janeiro ; now, 

 however, we had an opportunity of seeing its extraordinary 

 manner of breeding. The whole progeny, fifteen or twenty 

 in number, hung in a chain from one end of the mother, the 

 oldest only, or the largest, adhering to her, and the rest to 

 each other. 



Among a large quantity of birds I had killed (sixty-two in 

 all) I found two Hippoboscce, or forest flies, both of one species, 

 and different from any described. More than probably these 



