THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 97 



upon which it is impossible to calculate, when they show 

 their great heads for a moment, and. then repeat the man- 

 oeuvre. Though the rate of their speed has, I think, been con- 

 siderably over-estimated by Captain King, it is yet so great 

 as to render it impossible for a boat, however well manned, to 

 overtake them, except by hemming them in to some small 

 cove, where a gun may be used with a tolerable chance of suc- 

 cess. It is in general in such situations that those birds 

 which can fly take to the wing, and those which cannot have 

 recourse to their diving powers. Even when hit they very 

 frequently escape, for unless they receive a very heavy charge 

 of shot, their coat of down and feathers protects them from 

 serious injury. Their nests, in general placed on a sloping 

 bank near the sea, and under the shelter of a low bush, are 

 formed principally of gTass. In these four or five large cream- 

 coloured eggs (the dimensions of which may be roughly 

 stated as three and a half by two and a quarter inches) are 

 deposited, and covered with a layer of soft gray down. The 

 young brood appear to be tended by the parent birds for a 

 considerable period after they leave the egg, and may often be 

 seen swimming after them. Like the old birds, they swim 

 and dive actively, coming up after the plunge at a long dis- 

 tance. In the Strait and Channels, where only I had an oppor- 

 tunity of observing them, they were, like their parents, very 

 wary. In a specimen shot in the Channels, the entire upper 

 surface of the body, the sides of the head, and a gorget around 

 the lower part of the neck, were covered with grayish-black 

 down, while the under surface and a spot placed obliquely 

 above and behind the eye were white. The bill, legs, and 

 feet were black, with some light-coloured patches along the 

 edge of the toes. The length, from the extremity of the bill 

 to the tip of the tail, was fourteen inches. Ossification pro- 



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