SCYTALOPUS MAGELLANICUS 83 



Islands is Darwin, and the account he gives of its habits is 

 supported by his immature specimen from there in the British 

 Museum. 



" In the Falkland Islands," he says, " instead of inhabiting 

 forests, it frequents the coarse herbage and low bushes, which 

 in most parts conceal the peaty surface of that island . . . 

 In a skulking manner, with its little tail erect, it hops about 

 the most entangled parts of the forests of Tierra del Fuego ; 

 but when near the outskirts, it every now and then pops out, 

 and then quickly back again. It utters many loud and strange 

 cries : to obtain a good view of it is not always easy, and 

 still less so to make it fly." 



Myself, I have never seen Scytalopus anywhere but in 

 forest. During nearly two months in tlie forest country to 

 the south of Useless Bay, I saw three examples in all — a pair 

 on the first occasion, then a single bird. Try as I would I could 

 not shoot a specimen. Later, it proved common in Nose 

 Peak forest. Its dark haunts, its minute black form, 

 and its lurking restless habits, make it as difhcult to locate 

 as it is to shoot with so tiny a weapon as a collector's gun. 

 Luckily, it is possessed of curiosity, which impels it sometimes 

 to rush out at one's feet, so close that one must withdraw to 

 a proper distance before one can shoot. Many times have I been 

 followed by the bird, out of curiosity, before I have retreated 

 the necessary distance. Its movements are largely on foot : the 

 wings are little more than accessories to the legs in negotiating 

 short, sharp rushes from one thicket to another along tree-trunks 

 lying pi'one or the ground itself. So rapidly does it move, and 

 so much along the surface of the ground or of objects thereon, 

 that unless one has been previously aware of its existence, one 

 would certainly take it for a mouse rather than a bird. 



For so small a creature the voice is remarkably powerful. 

 Hardly can it be said to have a song. Its principal call is 

 ^^ Kum-hak^^ repeated an indefinite number of times, at regular 

 intervals. During nearly two months' close observation of the 



