TACHYERES CINEEEUS 111 



Oustalet devotes twenty quarto pages and two plates to main- 

 taining two. To this day the sheepmen of Tierra del Fuego are 

 puzzled what to make of this bird : some are aware that it can fly; 

 the majority are of opinion that it cannot. I do not think 1 came 

 across one who had definitely arrived at the knowledge that the 

 power of flight could be possessed by some individuals and 

 lacking in others. 



None of the old voyagers mention having seen this Duck on 

 the wing. 



The earliest record of it appears to be that of Pedro Sarmiento 

 de Gamboa in 1580, who tells us of " Patos pardas y ber- 

 mejas sui pluma que ne vuelan, sin6 a vuela pie corren, y par el 

 agua no se pueden levantar sino a vuela pie, dando con las 

 alones a manero de remo. Huyen por el agua con mucho 

 velocidad, y desan un rastro por el agua como un bajel quando 

 vaga." 



Amongst the birds on which the survivors of the ill-fated 

 "Wager" subsisted on the Guaianeco Islands in 1740 — 

 than whom probably no men ever underwent more terrible 

 privations — Byron mentions one " much larger than a Goose, 

 which we called the Race Horse, from the velocity with which 

 it moved upon the surface of the waters, in a sort of half-flying 

 half-running motion." 



Pernety alludes to it in the Falkland Islands in 1764 

 as : — " Une espece de Canard, qui va par paires, quelquefois en 

 troupe, dont les plumes des ailes sont tres courtes ; aussi ne s'en 

 sert-il que pour se soutenir en courant sur I'eau, & ne vole pas. 

 Si on ne le tue pas roide, it fuit a la surface tant qu'il lui reste 

 un soufle de vie. Sa chair est huileuse & sent le marecage." 



In December 1774, Cook describes Christmas Sound on 

 the south coast of Tierra del Fuego, of which he gives an 

 excellent drawing. " Here,'' says he, "is a kind of Duck 

 called by our people Race-horses, on account of the great 

 swiftness with which they run on the water ; for they cannot 

 fly, the wings being too short to support the body in the air." 



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