114 REPORT 1870. 



2. The living- Foraminifera of the fens may he compared with their immediate 

 predecessors iii point of time by the examination of the bed of clay nnderlying the 

 peat throiiEfhout the district. Out of forty-one specific and varietal forms found 

 subfossilized in the clay, twenty have sm-vived the changes in the physical aspects 

 of the country ; no fresh type has appeared, and the few varieties which now exist, 

 not present in the clay, generally represent depauperated conditions of certain of 

 the older t^-pes. 



3. Decreased salinity of water tends to produce certain changes in the characters 

 of the Rhizopoda, especially in the nature of their investment. This is chiefly 

 dependent on the deficiency of calcareoxis matter. Thus Sliliola (normally porcel- 

 lanous ) and Trochammina (normally arenaceous) are represented in brackish water 

 by forms having a keratose investment, which is scarcely altered by treatment with 

 strong acids. In other genera the deficiency of mineral constituents causes thinning 

 of the shell-wall. 



>Some species, notably Konioynna depressxda and Poh/sfomelhi striatnptmctata, are 

 often of a green colour when living in pools where the admixture of fresh water is 

 considerable ; and it was stated, under reserve, that there were indications that the 

 colouring-matterinight be chlorophvU. 



4. Two species of Foraminifera hitherto undescribed are amongst the commonest 

 of brackish Rhizopoda, A'iz. Quinqncloculina fusca s.ndi Trocliammina macrescens*. 



Eight species not before recorded from British localities had been found in the 

 brackish gatherings, viz. — Qinnqxclocidina Canrteinna, D'Orb., Lacjena Li/plIn,Se^., 

 Denfalina ffutfifera, T>'Ovh.,MargiimUna (jhihra, D'Orb., Teaiiilariaf/lobuIosa,'EhYenh., 

 Gaudryina pupoidcs, D'Orb., Verneuilina spimdosa, Reuss, and Bolivina plicata, D'Orb. 



On the Terrestrial and Marine Fauna of the Strait of Magellan and Western 

 Patagonia, By Egbert 0. CxjiranfcurAM, M.D., F.L.S. 



The author, after briefly adverting to the climate and phj-sical features of the 

 above regions, made some remarks on the distribution of tlie classes, genera, and 

 species of the animals occurring therein, mentioning some of the more remarkable 

 facts observed by him. Beginning with the Mammalia, the existence of the pimia 

 {Fc'lis concolor), two species of ox, a Mephitis or skunk, an otter, the sea-lion 

 (Otariajuhatd), the fur-seal {Arctoaphalns falklandicus), the guanaco, a species of 

 deer, and a variety of Rodents were recorded from the Strait. No Marsupials 

 were met with in Patagonia proper, but a small opossimi (Didelphis clcf/ans) not 

 uncommon in the neighbourhood of Concepcion occun-ed in the island of Chiloe. 

 More than eighty species of birds were procured in the Strait of Magellan and on 

 the western coast of the continent as far north as Chiloe. The Raptores comprised 

 two species of Vidtriridcp. (the turkey-buzzard and the condor), seven species of 

 Falconid(r>, and four of Strigidce. Among the more interesting of the remaining 

 land-birds enumerated were a humming-bird, a paraquet, and two species of 

 woodpecker. In speaking of the water-fowl, some of the more remarkable breed- 

 ing-stations of these birds were pointed out on a coloirred chart of the Strait, certain 

 of which had been observed by the old voyagers of the Elizabethan age. But one 

 true reptile, a small lizard (lii/f/odenis pccfinatus), was recorded from the Strait of 

 j\Iagellan ; but on the west coast of Patagonia Amphibia were found as far south as 

 Lit. 51°, and these consisted of two species, — one, the Hyhdes leptopus, discovered 

 by INIr. Darwin at Yaldivia ; and the other the type of a new genus named by Dr. 

 Giinther Kannophryne. About twenty species of fish were obtained ; and of these, 

 seven were members of the family Trachiuidoe, and representatives of the genera 

 Ampliritis, Chfrnichthys, Eleyinus, Kotothcnia, and Harpayifer. Reference was 

 made to two new genera, i. e. Maynea (family Lycodidre), and Psammohatis (family 

 Raiadfe). The Invertebrata were then passed in review, and the more interesting 

 forms remarked on. Regarded as a whole, the fauna of the Strait and Western 

 Patagonia appears to belong to the Chilian tj^e. 



* These have since been described and figured in the ' Annals of Natural History ' for 

 October 1870, 



