18 BIRDS OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO 



D'Orbigny's experience was similar. He says : — " Quoique 

 repandue sur une vaste surface de terrain, elie n'est, a proprement 

 parler, commune niiUe part. On en rencontre quelquefois des 

 individus isol^s ; mais, le plus souvent, ils vont par paires, 6pars 

 dans les campagnes, et s6pards les uns des autres par une grande 

 distance ; car ils sont des plus egoistes." 



" En tout temps, ils ne vivent absolument que de proie 

 fraiche, de mammif^res et d'oiseaux, surtout des derniers, qu'ils 

 preferent h tout, et qu'ils poursuivent avec une agilite et une 

 adresse extraordinaires." 



Darwin obtained one specimen at Port Desire, Patagonia, 

 in Lat. 47°: 44' S. 



The French Mission to Cape Horn did not meet with it. 



There is no previous record of this Hobby's occurrence in 

 Tierra del Fuego. It is by no means common, I saw, perhaps, 

 less than a dozen all told, some of which will have been the 

 same individual on several occasions. It interested me more than 

 any other bird of prey. It is the wildest, swiftest, and most 

 dashing bird of prey in the island. I was never able to 

 shoot one. Mr. J. G. Cameron killed this specimen for me, with 

 a bullet, at Cheena Creek. It is essentially a bird of the wilds, 

 and does not frequent settlements. All I have seen — with one 

 exception — have been hurrying along bent on their purpose, 

 either flying straight overhead at a tremendous pace usually out 

 of gunshot, or chasing small birds high into the sky. Once 

 I came on one perching on a drift tree on the sea shore. 



Durnford states it is the swiftest Hawk in Patagonia. 

 He saw it but rarely. A nest found on the 3rd of November 

 was placed on the toj) of a thick thorn-bush, and formed of 

 twigs and sticks, lined with grass. It contained three eggs, in 

 colour rich yellowish red, thickly speckled all over with dark 

 rufous spots. 



This specimen's stomach contained the remains of a bird. 



