CINCLODES PATAGONICUS 75 



It breeds in holes in the cliffs. If one invades the domain of 

 a pair, they become much perturbed : they descend to the beach, 

 run about, droop and flutter their wings, and screech shrilly 

 ^^ P-i-r-r-r ! " There is no difficulty in locating their nests, but 

 these are placed so awkwardly in the face of perpendicular sandy 

 cliffs, that the chance of the cliff coming away in getting up to 

 them or burying one in digging them out, makes it hardly 

 worth the risk of attempting it. They live on small Crustacea — 

 a kind of sand hopper (Orchestia chilensis)^ — inhabiting the 

 monster masses of sea-weed growing along shore and ever being 

 thrown up by the tide. For procuring these, the bill is well 

 adapted. These birds possess a peculiarly strong and unpleasant 

 odour. 



According to Darwin, the habits are quite similar in all 

 these nearly allied shore forms. He says : — " They live almost 

 exclusively on the sea beach, whether formed of shingle or rock, 

 and feed just above the surf on the matter thrown up by the 

 waves. The pebbly beds of large rivers sometimes tempt 

 a solitary pair to wander far fi'om the coast. Thus at Santa 

 Cruz I saw one at least one hundred miles inland. In 

 Tierra del Fuego I scarcely ever saw one twenty yards 

 from the beach, and they may frequently be seen walking on 

 the buoyant leaves of the Fucus giganteus^\ at some little distance 

 from the shore. . . . They are very quiet, tame and solitary, 

 but they may not unfrequently be seen in pairs. They hop 

 and likewise run quickly ; in which latter respect, and likewise in 

 their greater tameness, they differ from the 0. vulgaris. Their cry 

 is seldom uttered, but is a quick repetition of a shrill note, like 

 that of the last-named bird, and of several species oi Furnarius.^' 



" On the 20th of September, I found, near Valparaiso, a nest 

 with young birds in it : it was placed in a small hole in the roof 

 of a deep cavern, not far from the bank of a pebbly stream." 



* For this name I am indebted to Dr. W. T. Caiman, who has examined 

 specimens taken from the stomach of the bird. — R. C. 

 t Now known as Macrocystis pyrifera. — R. C. 



