45 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : ZOOLOGY. 



party we had left about a week previously at Elizabeth Island, as we were 

 anxious to ascertain their welfare before leaving for the Falkland Islands. 

 Finding them encamped on one of the small islands in Peckett Harbor 

 to the north of Elizabeth Island, we remained at that port for the rest of 

 the day, which allowed some of us to land for a ramble. I found a fleshy 

 Chenopodiaceous plant, new to me, but little else of interest ; and a con- 

 siderable number of geese and ducks were shot by the officers. The 

 former were the Chloephaga Magellanica, which I have already noticed as 

 common in this region, while the latter were of two very distinct species, 

 i. e. the steamer-duck and the Anas cristata, which, with perhaps the 

 exception of the steamer, is by far the most abundant of the Anatidae of 

 the Strait, being to be met with almost everywhere in greater or less 

 numbers, generally swimming among the broad belts of kelp at some 

 distance from the shore. The plumage of both male and female is com- 

 pounded of various shades of gray and brown, the latter colour predomi- 

 nating ; and the male is distinguished by the possession of a small crest. 

 We found them rather good eating during some months of the year ; but 

 at others they had an unpleasantly fishy flavor." (Cunningham, Nat. 

 Hist, of the Straits of Magellan, pp. 153-154.) 



"Female: Port Rosario, March 15, 1879. 



"Female: Cockle Cove, February 7, 1879. Iris blood-red; legs dark 

 grey ; upper mandible horn-colour, lower one flesh-colour. 



" Male : Tom Bay, November 29, 1879. Eyes yellowish red ; bill black. 



"The egg is creamy buff, and measures axis 2.4 inches, diam. 1.65." 

 (Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 13.) 



Genus MARECA Steph. 



Type. 



Mareca, Steph. Gen. Zool. XII. 2, p. 130 (1824) ; Salvadori, 

 Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus. XXVII. p. 227 (1895); Sharpe, 



Hand-list Bds. I. 'p. 218 (1899) M. penelope. 



Penelops, Kaup, Naturl. Syst. p. 31 (1829) . . . M. penelope. 

 Marcia (errore?), Leach, fide Sw. Class. B. II. p. 336 (1837). 



Geographical Range. Palearctic, Nearctic, and Neotropical Regions. 



MARECA SIBILATRIX (Poeppig). 



Pato pico pequeno, Azara, Apunt. III. p. 432 (1805). 

 Anasviduata (part), Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. V. p. 164 (1816). 



