152 BIRDS OF TIERKA DEL FUEGO 



never remarked it in tlie sea. Nowhere is it numerous. It 

 occurs in pairs or little communities of from three to five 

 individuals, which is the greatest number I have seen together. 

 It frequents streams and permanent fresh water lagoons. 



It is a weird-looking restless creature, cunning in some 

 respects, yet withal curious. It swims round and round 

 nervously, and dives from time to time when observed by man. 



Many cartridges can be expended in firing at these birds. 

 Mr. J. G. Cameron and myself fired about thirty shots at a pair on 

 the water between us one afternoon with no result. Ultimately, 

 I secured both birds with a single 12 -bore cartridge from behind 

 a blind of drift grass hastily put up on the margin of the lagoon. 



Durnford found this Grebe common in almost every pool 

 and ditch in the Chupat Valley. 



Fresh water Crustacea were in the stomachs of all specimens 

 examined by me. 



^CHMOPHORUS MAJOR (Boddaert) 



Le Grand Grebe, Baffon, Hist. Nat. Ols., viii, p. 242, 1781 ; Id., Hist. 



Nat. Ois., ix, pi. cccciv, 1784. 

 ColymbuS major, Boddaert, Tahle Planches Enluminees, p. 24, 178.3. 

 .aSchniOpllOruS major, Dumford, Ibis, p. 203, 1877, p. 405, 1878 ; 



Sclater and Hudson, Argentine Orn., ii, p. 202, 1889 ; Grant, Gat. Birds 



Brit. Mus., XX vi, p. 549, 1898. 

 PodicepS major, OustaUt, Miss. Sci. Cap Horn, Ois., p. 232, 1891. 



Habitat. — Brazil and Peru, to Tierra del Fuego. 



? , Useless Bay, 27tli Dec, 1904. 



Iris — magenta ; bill and legs — dark grey. 



The Great Grebe frequents the sea, and fresh water lagoons 

 sometimes nearly twenty miles inland. I have occasionally seen 

 these birds in lakes in the depths of the forest. How they 

 arrive there, and what they live on, I do not know. They are 

 not plentiful : they occur in pairs, or sometimes three together. 

 They are remarkable for extreme curiosity. I have often seen 



