Notices of Boohs. 9427 



haunted the neighbourhood of the houses to pick up all kinds of offal. 

 If a hunting party in the country killed a beast, these birds immedi- 

 ately congregated from all quarters of the horizon, and, standing on 

 the ground in a circle, they patiently awaited for their feast to com- 

 mence. * * * * They readily attack wounded birds. One of the 

 officers of the ' Beagle' told me he saw a cormorant in this state fly to 

 the shore, where several of these hawks immediately seized upon it 

 and hastened its death by their repeated blows. I have been told that 

 several have been seen to wait together at the mouth of a rabbit hole,* 

 and seize on the animal as it comes out. * * * * The ' Beagle ' was 

 at the Falkland Islands only during the early autumn (March), but the 

 officers of the ' Adventure,' who were there in the winter, mentioned 

 many extraordinary instances of the boldness and rapacity of these 

 birds. The sportsmen had difficulty in preventing the wounded geese 

 from being seized before their eyes ; and often, when, having 

 cautiously looked around, they thought they had succeeded in hiding 

 a fine bird in some crevice of the rocks, on their return they found, 

 when intending to pick up their game, nothing but feathers. One of 

 these hawks pounced on a dog which was lying asleep close by a 

 party who were out shooting; and they repeatedly flew on board the 

 vessel lying in the harbour, so that it was necessary to keep a good 

 look-out to prevent the hide used about the ropes being torn fi-ora 

 the rigging, and the meat or game from the stern. They are very 

 mischievous and inquisitive ; and they will pick up almost any- 

 thing from the ground. A large black glazed hat was carried 

 nearly a mile, as were a pair of heavy 'balls used in catching wild 

 cattle. Mr. Usborne experienced during the survey a severe loss in 

 a small Kater's-compass, in a red morocco case, which was never 

 recovered. These birds are, moreover, quarrelsome and extremely 

 passionate ; it was curious to behold them, when impatient, tearing 

 up the grass with their bills from rage. They are not truly gregarious ; 

 they do not soar, and their flight is heavy and clumsy. On the ground 

 they run with extreme quickness, putting out one leg before the other 

 and stretching forward their bodies, very much like pheasants. The 

 sealers, who have sometimes, when pressed by hunger, eaten them, 

 say that the flesh when cooked is quite white, like that of a fowl, and 

 very good to eat, a fact which I (as well as some others of a party from 

 the ' Beagle,' who, owing to a gale of wind, were left on shore in Northern 



" * The rabbits of the Falkland Islands, here referred to by Mr. Darwin, are de- 

 scended from English rabbits which have been turned loose on the Islands." 



