THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 77 



reference is made to fair woods in the Strait of Magellan 

 full of parrots ; and Captain Wood, in his interesting narra- 

 tive of this " Voyage through the Streights of Magellan in 

 1699-70," mentions that in a wood at Port Famine he " saw 

 five birds, among which was a small parrot or parakite." 

 The species appears to be tolerably common throughout the 

 wooded country on the shores of the Strait, and the 

 channels on the west coast of Patagonia, and is also abun- 

 dant at Chiloe. It generally flies in small flocks, which 

 herald their approach by a series of short screams, lighting 

 on the topmost branches of the trees, where they scramble 

 about with their bodies lying close to the boughs, a habit 

 which, together with their green colour, which closely ap- 

 proximates to that of the foliage, renders them difficult to 

 perceive, and thus screens them from danger. According to 

 Captain King (and an examination of the contents of the 

 stomachs of various individuals has enabled me to verify 

 this observation), they feed chiefly on the seeds of the Win- 

 ter' s-bark tree, to be afterwards mentioned. 



Our delightful ramble this day was brought to a close about 

 8 P.M., when we returned to the ship, and the only circumstance 

 worthy of record that occurred during the evening was the cap- 

 ture on a fishing-line of a cuttle-fish of the genus Octopus, which 

 was exceedingly agile, and exhibited most decided objections 

 to being made a martyr to science. This, almost the only 

 species of Cephalopod which I met with in the Strait, is, I be- 

 lieve, the 0. megalocyathiis, characterised by the large size of 

 the sucking cups on the arms, and seems to be far from rare, 

 as I dredged specimens in many localities ; and on two or three 

 occasions numerous large individuals were found lying on 

 the beach at Sandy Point after the prevalence of severe gales. 



The 23d was a pleasant bright day. A surveying party. 



