184 LETTER FROM DR. R. O. CUNNINGHAM. [Mar. 12, 



Washington, January 31st, 1868, announcing that he had forwarded 

 to the Society, on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, an electro- 

 type copy of a drawing on wood of a young Californian Vulture 

 {Cathartes californianus), in return for a similar copy of the wood- 

 cut of the adult of the same bird in the Society's ' Proceedings ' for 

 1866. 



The woodcut had been taken from a photograph of the same in- 

 dividual (which was now Hving in the Society's Gardens, having 

 been presented by Dr. Canfield in June 1866) when quite young and 

 in the down. It was stated that the details of the bill were perhaps 

 not quite accurate. 



The following extracts were read from a letter addressed by Dr. 

 Robert O. Cunningham, Naturalist to the Magellan Straits Survey 

 Expedition, to Professor Huxley, and communicated by him to the 



Meeting. " H.M.S, 'Nassau,' 



Rio de Janeiro, 



September 23rd, 1867. 



"My dear Sir, — When I had the pleasure of calling on you 

 rather more than a year ago, before proceeding to the Straits of Ma- 

 gelhaens, as Naturalist to a Surveying Expedition under the com- 

 mand of Captain Mayne, you were kind enough to invite me to write 

 to you when I felt so disposed, and now, after my first year's expe- 

 rience of the Strait, I send you a few notes principally relating to 

 its zoology. We left England last September, and, after visiting 

 Madeira, St. Vincent (Cape de Verdes), Rio de Janeiro, Monte Video, 

 and Maldonado, arrived at our destination near the end of December. 

 There, with the exception of a visit to the Falkland Islands to pro- 

 vision and coal, we remained till about the middle of June, when, 

 the severity of the weather putting an end to surveying-operations, 

 we moved northwards, and arrived at Rio in the beginning of July. 

 Our work, except a cruise of a few days, when we were engaged 

 piloting H.M.S. 'Zealous' through the northern portion of the 

 Strait, has lain between the Chilian settlement of Sandy Point and 

 the eastern entrance, and consequently has embraced some of the 

 vrider portions of the Strait. The country on either side of this 

 tract is for the most part formed of low-lying undulating plains, the 

 geological formation being almost exclusively boulder-clay, and pre- 

 senting but few eminences of any considerable elevation, at all events 

 near the sea. These plains are covered with grass and occasional 

 barberry-bushes ; and it is not till we reach Cape Negro that the 

 wooded country, which is of a more elevated character, begins. 

 Thence to the westward the woods increase in thickness till they 

 become almost impenetrable in their character. The climate of this 

 eastern portion may be described as remarkably fine, the atmo- 

 sphere being singularly bright and clear, and the rainfall very small, 

 the principal drawback being the prevalence of wind. This latter 

 circumstance, and the great force and rise and fall of the tides, con- 

 stituted two of the chief difiiculties with which we had to contend 

 during our sojourn last season, and made a heavy demand on our 



