96 BIRDS OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO 



officer of many sympathies, Capt. King, it is impracticable to 

 accept his inadult Atias inornatus as the type of this species. 



After carefully examining this bird and comparing it witli all 

 nearly-allied forms in the British Museum, I am of opinion that 

 it cannot be identified with this species in any normal phase of 

 plumage ; if it resembles anything, it is nearest to C. antarctlca^ 

 of which it has the light-coloured bill and yellow legs and feet, 

 whereas in the male of C. dispar these are black. 



An excellent plate of King's bird, as Bernicla inornata, is 

 given in the Birds of the " Erebus " and " Terror " Expedition. 



His female is certainly referable to C. antardica ; it is an 

 inadult specimen about the size of the male, and quite conceivably 

 is of the same brood. 



The Barred Magellan Goose is resident in Tierra del Fuego 

 during the entire year. It is, on the whole, the most numerous 

 of all the Geese, for although C. rubidiceps exists in perhaps 

 equal numbers in the lowlands, this bird is as commonly met with 

 in the hills and even on the plateau. For anyone who has not 

 actually seen these Geese, it would be impossible to realize what 

 a factor they are in the natural history of the island and its develop- 

 ment by man. Go where you will — in and around settlements, 

 on the open flats, on the slopes of the mountains, even on the 

 mountain tops — there are the Geese always, in countless thousands, 

 from single birds or pairs to companies of fifty or a hundred or 

 more. All my previous conceptions of wild Geese were dispelled. 

 In Africa and North America I had been taught to associate them 

 with water and more or less impenetrable marshes ; whereas in 

 Tierra del Fuego, I found them frequenting open, dry ground, 

 and though often in the neighbourhood of water, rarely in it 

 or on it. Never are you out of sight or hearing of Geese, 

 grazing, squatting, and ever rising and gaggling, as you go your 

 way. I had expected to find them nesting in low ground, in 

 reeds and long grass, on the margins of lagoons and streams. 

 Until I saw it, I could not conceive that Geese would nest 

 where they commonly do in the island — on dr}^, open ground. 



