6 BIRDS OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



one inch wide of lustrous changeable green, then a band of orange-brown 

 one-fourth inch wide. 



Tarsus and foot ocher-yellow to dirty pale-green. 



Claws blaqji; posterior nail very short and much elevated ; the other 

 three covered by skin beneath to their extremities. 



Tail pointed. 



Stomach is muscular and generally contains gravel. 



These birds, which became the principal dependence of our party ia 

 the way of fresh provisions, are very abundant on the island, but gen- 

 erally shy and difficult of approach. They were to be found inland, 

 where I have seen them as high as 2,500 feet above the sea-level, and 

 on the sea-shore when the tide was falling. They feed upon the roots 

 of the Azorella selago, grass-seeds, earth-worms, and larvae, and the small 

 crustaceans which swarm along the sea-shore. They are strong in flighty 

 rising readily from both land and water, and run upon the land like 

 grouse or quails, with little of the clumsiness or waddling gait of other 

 ducks. 



It is probable that they begin to pair about November 10, since I 

 observed pairs already formed, and the birds chasing one another in the 

 air, etc., on November 14. They frequent the banks of brooks and the 

 higher land during the breeding-season, and begin to lay about Novem- 

 ber 15, building a rather deep nest on the ground, generally near the 

 water, under a tussock, and well concealed by grass, deep, hemispher- 

 ical, and lined with feathers from the breast of the female. There are 

 four or five pale olive-green eggs, about three-fourths the size of a hen's 

 egg. Upon leaving the nest, the female covers her eggs with feathers, 

 disposing the neighboring grass with considerable art so as to conceal 



bus alse iuferiori concoloribus ; rostro plumbeo, culmine nigro : pedibus einerascentibus, 

 membranis interdigitalibus nigris. LDng. tot. 15.5, alse 8.5, caudae 4.8, tarsi 1.2. 



" 5 . mari similis sed speculo alari absente, secundariis albo terminatis : caudS, brun- 

 ne^, rufescenti-fulvo fasciatim marmorata. /■ 



" Hab. in insula Kerguelensi. 



"This plain-coloured Teal is allied to Q. gibherifrons and Q. creccoides. From tlie 

 former it is at once to be distinguished by the fawn-coloured bar on the -wing and the 

 bronzy speculum, the wing-bar being broadly white, and the speculum black in Q. gib- 

 ierifrons. 



" Q. creccoides resembles Q. eatoni in having the fawn-coloured wing-bar; but then the 

 speculum is black, and the greater part of the bill is yellow. 



" Q. eatoni also has the axillaries whitish barred with brown, whereas they are quite 

 white in the allied species, and, moreover, it has remains of rufous-buff bars on most of 

 the feathers of the upper surface, the back being uniform in the other species. Alto- 

 gether the species seems very well pronounced. Besides the three examples brought 

 by Mr. Eaton, I have found in the [British] Museum three Kerguelen Island skins, col- 

 lected during the voyage of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror.' " 



